2,23 APPLICATIONS OF HALL EFFECT () It is used to determine whethe : t the material is p- or mt semiconductor. (i.e. aah 2 : ») if Ry is negative then the material is n-type. If the Ry is positive then the material is p-type. (i) Mt is used to find the carrier concentration, wen ( a, Ja eRy 1 afte | OR, (ii) It is used to find the mobility of charge carriers [1,, Hy. (iv) It is used to determine the sign of the current carrying charges. (v) It is used to design magnetic flux meters and multipliers on the basis. of Hall voltage. (vi) It is used to find the power flow in an electromagnetic wave. 2,24 OHMIC CONTACT Principle = An ohmic contact is a non-rectifying contact which obeys ohm’s law i.e. V=IR. The resistance of the ohmic contact should always be low i.e., conductivity should be large. Explanation Before contact Let us consider a metal of fermi energy Ep, and an n-type semiconductor of fermi energy E,, as shown in Fig. 2.32, in which we can see that when they are separated by a distance (d), the fermi energy (E,,,) of the metal lies above that of the fermi energy of the semiconductor (E;,). E c Eyoot Valence band = Before contact ‘Adtee contact, Fig. 2.32 Fig. 2.33After contact § Now, when the metal and n-type semiconductor are made, to have contact with each other, then the energy bands of the n-type semiconductor bend downwards near the contact as shown in Fig. 2.33. The magnitude of the bang bending and its extension into the semiconductor is very small. ‘Thus, as a result there is virtually no potential barrier between the metal and the semiconductor and the resistivity becomes véry low (or) almost zero, ‘Therefore the electrons can flow freely through the contact and the current increases at the ohmic contact. Example: Schottky diode isa very best example, which behaves as a ohmic contact if the impurity concentration is very high. 2.25 SCHOTTKY DIODE Principle Schottky diode is a unilateral device, in which current flows form. metal to semiconductor (n-type) in one direction. - Symbol: ‘The symbol of a schottky diode is as shown in Fig. 2.34. Anode Cathode Fig. 2.34 Construction ‘Ohmic contact Fig. 2.35‘A schottky diode also called as schottky barrier di <. Poa iy metals:such'92"chronsfuns, ae rier diode (or) hot carrier diode is juminium i ii an n-type semiconductor (silicon), ee A schottky barrier diode is made up of 2 junctions, viz 1, A unilateral metal-semiconductor junction. 2. A bilateral metal-semiconductor junction, as shown in Fig. 2.35 Here, the schottky diode act as a terminal device in which metal (1) and the semiconductor, formed at one end act as a Anode with unilateral junction and metal (2) and the semiconductor formed at the other end act as cathode with bilateral junction. At the ohmic contact, the potential barrier is almost zero. The built in potential of the diode is a function of temperature and doping i.e., The potential decreases with the increase in temperature (or) doping of the semiconductor. Working | ‘The diode is forward biased. The voltage applied to the diode, is slowly increased in steps of 0.1V, 0.2V etc and the current is measured. The V-/. characteristics curve of the schottky diode is as shown in Fig. 2.36 along with the V—J characteristics curve for a p—n junction diode for comparison. From Fig. 2.36 we can see that the forward voltage drop [0.3V] is very less, when compared to p—n junction diode the forward voltage drop [0.7V] and Schottky PN-Junction I diode diode Fig. 2.36hence for a schottky diode the current increases enormously even for a small applied voltage. The current in the schottky diode is due to 3 components viz., i) Diffusion current (Ip) Gi) Tunnelling current (7) and (iii) ‘Thermoionic emission current. (Iz) <. Total current Applications l (i) As the. schottky barrier diodes have very low voltage drop, they are used in high switching system efficiency component. (i) They are used in Bipolar Junction Transistor (BJT). Gii) They are also used in voltage clamping and voltage rectifying applications. Gy) Schottky diodes play a vital role in GaAs circuits and high power applications.