CHAPTER 2

Semiconductor Theory in
Equilibrium

L3 – Physics of radiations
Dpt. Energetic Physics
USTO_MB
 CHARGE CARRIERS IN SEMICONDUCTORS

Holes and Intrinsic Semiconductors

• When electrons move into the conduction band, they leave behind vacancies
in the valence band. These vacancies are called holes. Because holes represent
the absence of negative charges, it is useful to think of them as positive
charges.

• Whereas the electrons move in a direction opposite to the applied electric

field, the holes move in the direction of the electric field.

• A semiconductor in which there is a balance between the number of electrons

in the conduction band and the number of holes in the valence band is called
an intrinsic semiconductor.

Examples of intrinsic semiconductors include pure carbon and germanium.

2
 Impurity Semiconductor
• It is possible to fine-tune a semiconductor’s properties by adding a small
amount of another material, called a dopant, to the semiconductor creating
what is a called an impurity semiconductor.

• As an example, silicon has four electrons in its outermost shell (this

corresponds to the valence band) and arsenic has five.

Thus while four of arsenic’s outer-shell electrons participate in covalent

bonding with its nearest neighbors (just as another silicon atom would), the
fifth electron is very weakly bound.

It takes only about 0.05 eV to move this extra electron into the conduction
band.

• The effect is that adding only a small amount of arsenic to silicon greatly
increases the electrical conductivity.

3
 n-type Semiconductor
• An impurity, or element like
arsenic, has 5 valence electrons.
• Adding arsenic (doping) will
allow four of the arsenic
valence electrons to bond with
the neighboring silicon atoms.
• The one electron left over for
each arsenic atom becomes
available to conduct current
flow.
• The new arsenic energy
levels just below the
conduction band are called
donor levels because an
electron there is easily
donated to the conduction sc doped by donated atoms , electrons
band are more then holes
donor levels is near to conduction band

A presentation of eSyst.org
 p-type Semiconductor
• You can also dope a semiconductor
material with an atom such as
boron that has only 3 valence
electrons.
• The 3 electrons in the outer orbit
do form covalent bonds with its
neighboring semiconductor atoms
as before. But one atom is missing
from the bond.
• This place where a fourth electron
should be is referred to as a hole.
• The hole assumes a positive charge
so it can attract electrons from
some other source.
• Holes become a type of current
carrier like the electron to support
current flow.
• Those new indium levels are called
acceptor levels because they can sc doped by accepted atoms , electrons are
easily accept an electron from the less then holes
valence band
acceptor levels is near to valence band

A presentation of eSyst.org
 Current Flow in N-type Semiconductors
• The DC voltage source has a
positive terminal that attracts
the free electrons in the
semiconductor and pulls them
away from their atoms leaving
the atoms charged positively.
• Electrons from the negative
terminal of the supply enter
the semiconductor material
and are attracted by the
positive charge of the atoms
missing one of their electrons.
• Current (electrons) flows from
the positive terminal to the
negative terminal.

A presentation of eSyst.org
 Current Flow in P-type Semiconductors
• Electrons from the negative
supply terminal are attracted
to the positive holes and fill
them.
• The positive terminal of the
supply pulls the electrons
from the holes leaving the
holes to attract more
electrons.
• Current (electrons) flows
from the negative terminal to
the positive terminal.
• Inside the semiconductor
current flow is actually by the
movement of the holes from
positive to negative.

A presentation of eSyst.org
Semiconductor Theory : Fermi –Dirac distribution

• At T = 0 we expect all of the atoms in a solid to be in

the ground state. The distribution of electrons
(fermions) at the various energy levels is governed by
the Fermi-Dirac distribution of Equation (9.34):

β = (kT)−1 and EF is the Fermi energy.

8
• The Fermi–Dirac
distribution or probability
function gives the
probability that a
quantum state at the
energy E will be occupied
by an electron. The
energy EF is called the
Fermi energy .
• Another interpretation of
the distribution function
Figure | The Fermi probability
is that fF ( E ) is the ratio function versus energy
of filled to total quantum for different temperatures.
states at any energy E .
9
• This figure shows that, for T = 0 K, the electrons are in their
lowest possible energy states. The probability of a quantum
state being occupied is unity for E< EF and the probability of a
state being occupied is zero for E> EF . All electrons have
energies below the Fermi energy at T = 0 K.
• We can see that for temperatures above absolute zero, there
is a nonzero probability that some energy states above EF will
be occupied by electrons and some energy states below EF will
be empty. This result again means that some electrons have
jumped to higher energy levels with increasing thermal
energy.
• The probability of a state being occupied at E = EF is 1/ 2 . We
assume that that the Fermi energy is independent of
temperature.
10
 Equilibrium Distribution of Electrons and Holes
• The distribution (with n(E) = gc(E) fF (E) ….(1)
respect to energy) of
electrons in the • f (E) is the Fermi–
F
conduction band is Dirac probability
given by the density function and
of allowed quantum
states times the • g c(E) is the density of
probability that a quantum states in the
state is occupied by conduction band.
an electron. La distribution des électrons dans la bande de
conduction est donnée par la densité des états
quantiques autorisés multipliée par la probabilité
qu'un état soit occupé par un électron.
• Similarly, the
distribution (with • p(E) = gv(E)[1- fF (E)]…(2)
respect to energy) of
holes in the valence
band is the density of • fF (E) is the Fermi–Dirac
allowed quantum probability function and
states in the valence • gv(E) is the density of
band multiplied by quantum states in the
the probability that a valence band.
state is not occupied
by an electron. De même, la distribution des trous dans la
bande de valence est la densité des états
quantiques autorisés dans la bande de valence
multipliée par la probabilité qu'un état ne soit
pas occupé par un électron.
• Figure (a) Density of states functions, Fermi–Dirac probability function, and areas
representing electron and hole
• concentrations for the case when EF is near the midgap energy; (b) expanded view
near the conduction-band energy;
• and (c) expanded view near the valence-band energy.
 X Electron Effective Mass Concept
• The movement of an electron in • where Ftotal , Fext , and Fint are
a lattice will, in general, be the total force, the externally
different from that of applied force, and the
• an electron in free space. In • internal forces, respectively,
addition to an externally acting on a particle in a crystal.
applied force, there are internal The parameter a is the
• forces in the crystal due to • acceleration and m is the rest
positively charged ions or mass of the particle.
protons and negatively charged • Since it is difficult to take into
• electrons, which will influence account all of the internal
the motion of electrons in the forces, we will write the
lattice. We can write • Equation
Ftotal = Fext + Fint = ma • Fext = m*a
where the acceleration a is now directly related to the external force. The parameter
m *, called the effective mass, takes into account the particle mass and also takes
intoaccount the effect of the internal forces.
The hole, then, has a positive effective mass denoted by mp * and a positive
electronic charge..
 Fermi Energy Level
• We have argued that, for an intrinsic semiconductor at T = 0 K, all
energy states in the valence band are filled with electrons and all
energy states in the conduction band are empty of electrons. The
Fermi energy must, therefore, be somewhere between Ec and Ev.
(The Fermi energy does not need to correspond to an allowed
energy.)
• As the temperature begins to increase above 0 K, the valence
electrons will gain thermal energy. A few electrons in the valence
band may gain sufficient energy to jump to the conduction band.
• As an electron jumps from the valence band to the conduction
band, an empty state, or hole, is created in the valence band.
• In an intrinsic semiconductor, then, electrons and holes are
created in pairs by the thermal energy so that the number n0 of
electrons in the conduction band is equal to the number p0 of
holes in the valence band: n0 = p0= ni : The Intrinsic Carrier
Concentration
 The Intrinsic Carrier Concentration
• The equation for the thermal equilibrium concentration
of electrons and hole may be found by integrating
Equations (1) and (2) over, the conduction band energy
and the valence band energy respectively, or
• n0 = gc(E) fF (E) dE

• p0 =  gv(E)[1- fF (E)] dE

The parameters Nc and Nv are called, respectively, the effective

density of states function in the conduction and the valence band
 • The Fermi energy level for the intrinsic semiconductor
is called the intrinsic Fermi energy, or EF = EFi.
• If we take the product of ni2 = n0Xp0, we obtain :

where Eg is the bandgap energy. For a given semiconductor

material at a constant temperature, the value of ni is a
constant, and independent of the Fermi energy.
The product of n0 and p0 is always a constant for a
given semiconductor material at a given temperature.
This simple product simple is one of the fundamental
principles of semiconductors in thermal equilibrium.
 The Intrinsic Fermi-Level Position
Since the electron and
hole concentrations
are equal, we have
If we take the natural log of both sides of this equation
and solve for EFi, we obtain

We can define

so that :
 • so that the thermal-
equilibrium electron and
hole concentrations can
be written as :
- As we will see, the Fermi level changes when donors and
acceptors are added, but these Equations show that, as the
Fermi level changes from the intrinsic Fermi level, n0 and p0
change from the ni value.
- If EF> EFi, then we will have n0 > ni and p0 < ni.
- One characteristic of an n-type semiconductor is that
EF > EFi so that n0 > p0.
- Similarly, in a p-type semiconductor, EF< EFi so that p0 > ni
and n0 < ni; thus, p0 > n0.
• Density of states functions, Fermi–Dirac probability
function, and areas representing electron and hole
concentrations for the case when EF is above and below
the intrinsic Fermi energy.
Degenerate and Nondegenerate Semiconductors
Nondegenerate semiconductors :
• We assume that the impurities introduce discrete, noninteracting donor
energy states in the n-type semiconductor and discrete, noninteracting
acceptor states in the p-type semiconductor.
nondegenerate semiconductors:
• If the impurity concentration increases, the distance between the
impurity atoms decreases so the carrier interact with each other.
• The single discrete donor energy will split into a band of energies in
the n-type SC, and the discrete acceptor energy states will split into a
band of energies and may overlap the top of the valence band in the
p-type SC
• When the concentration of electrons in the conduction band exceeds
the density of states Nc, the Fermi energy lies within the conduction
band.
• The Fermi energy will lie in the valence band when the concentration
of holes exceeds the density of states Nv.
 Simplified energy-band diagrams for
degenerately doped (a) n-type and (b) p-type
semiconductors
 STATISTICS OF DONORS AND ACCEPTORS
• The probability function
of electrons occupying
the donor state is :

where nd is the density of electrons occupying the

donor level and Ed is the energy of the donor level.
The factor 1/2 is a direct result of the spin factor. The
1/ 2 factor is sometimes written as 1/g, where g is
called a degeneracy factor.
This equation can also be written in the form :
nd = Nd - Nd+
where Nd+ is the concentration of ionized donors
• If we do the same type of analysis for acceptor atoms,
we obtain the expression:

- where Na is the concentration of acceptor atoms, Ea is

the acceptor energy level, pa is the concentration of
holes in the acceptor states, and Na- is the concentration
of ionized acceptors.
- The ground state degeneracy factor g is normally taken
as 4 for the acceptor level in silicon and gallium arsenide
because of the detailed band structure.
• If we assume that (Ed- EF) >> kT, then

We can consider the ratio of electrons in the donor

state to the total number of electrons in the
conduction band plus donor state:

The factor (Ec - Ed) is just the ionization energy of the

donor electrons.