ELEC TR IC

AL
P R O P ER TI
ES
christian paul
baradia

O H M S LAW
The ratio V/I is a constant ,where V is
the voltage applied across a piece of
material (such as a wire) and I is the
current through the material:
V/I = R or V = IR
R is the resistance of the piece of
material.

ELECTRICAL RESISTIVITY
The electrical resistivity is
independent of specimen geometry
but related through the expression:

l = distance between the two points at

which the voltage is measured
A= cross-sectional area perpendicular to

the direction of the current

ELECTRICAL CO N D U CTIVITY
It is used to specify the electrical
character of a material. It is simply
the reciprocal of resistivity.

Ohm s law expression in terms of

current density, conductivity and
applied electric field.

the current density the electric field

intensity

ELECTRIC FIELD INTENSITY

-the voltage difference between
two points divided by the distance
separating them.

ELECTRO N M O BILITY
When an electric field is applied, a

force is brought to bear on the free

electrons; as a consequence, they all
experience an acceleration in a
direction opposite to that of the field,
by virtue of their negative charge.
- According to quantum mechanics,
there is no interaction between an
accelerating electron and atoms in a
perfect crystal lattice.

- Under such circumstances all the free

electrons should accelerate as long as
the electric field is applied, which
would give rise to an electric current
that is continuously increasing with
time. However, we know that a current
reaches a constant value the instant
that a field is applied, indicating that
there exist what might be termed
frictional forces, which counter this
acceleration from the external field.

 These frictional forces result from the

scattering of electrons by imperfections

in the crystal lattice, including impurity
atoms, vacancies, interstitial atoms,
dislocations, and even the thermal
vibrations of the atoms themselves.
The
scattering
phenomenon
is
manifested as a resistance to the
passage of an electric current. Several
parameters are used to describe the
extent of this scattering; these include
the drift velocity and the mobility of
an electron.

The drift velocity represents the

average electron velocity in the
direction of the force imposed by the
applied field.

drift velocity
electric field
intensity
electron mobility

Electrical conductivity dependence

on electron concentration, charge
and mobility.

conductivity
charge electron
mobility
no. of free conducting electrons per
unit volume

ELECTRO N BAN D
STRU CTU RE FO R SO LID
M ATERIALS

Electron Band Structure

- the arrangement of the
outermost electron bands and the
way in which they are filled with
electrons.
Fermi Energy
- the energy corresponding to the
highest filled state at 0 K.

In all conductors, semiconductors

and many insulating materials, only
electronic conduction exists, and the
magnitude of electrical conductivity
is strongly dependent on the number
of electrons available to participate
in the conduction process. However,
not all electrons in every atom will
accelerate in the presence of an
electric field.

The number of electrons available for

electrical conduction in a particular
material is related to the arrangement
of electron states or levels with
respect to energy, and then the
manner in which these states are
occupied by electrons.

CO N D U CTIO N IN TERM S
O F BAN D AN D ATO M IC
BO N D IN G M O D ELS

 Only electrons with energies greater

than the Fermi energy may be acted

on and accelerated in the presence
of an electric field

2 Types Of Charge Carrier

- Free Electron
- Hole
These

are the electrons that

participate
in
the
conduction
process, which are termed free

electrons

- Another charged electronic entity

called
a
hole
is
found
in
semiconductors and insulators. Holes
have energies less than Ef and also
participate in electronic conduction

M ETALS

- For an electron to become free, it

must be excited or promoted into
one of the empty and available
energy states above the Fermi
energy.

IN SU LATO RS and
SEM ICO N D U CTO RS
To become free, electrons must be

promoted across the energy band

gap and into empty states at the
bottom of the conduction band.
- This is possible only by supplying to
an electron the difference in energy
between these two states, which is
approximately equal to the band gap
energy (Eg)

 The

number of electron excited

thermally into the conduction band
depends on the energy band gap
width as well as temperature.
At a given temperature, the larger
the Eg , the lower the probability that
a valence electron will be promoted
into an energy state within the
conduction band; this results to
fewer conduction electrons. In other
words, the larger the band gap, the
lower the electrical conductivity at a
given temperature.

 Increasing the temperature of either

a semiconductor or an insulator
results in an increase in the thermal
energy that is available for electron
excitation. Thus, more electrons are
promoted into the conduction band,
which gives rise to an enhanced
conductivity.

ELECTRICAL RESISTIVITY O F
M ETALS

 Most

metals are extremely good

conductors of electricity.
Metals have high conductivities
because of the large numbers of free
electrons that have been excited into
empty states above the Fermi
energy.
The total resistivity of a metal is the
sum of the contributions from :
Thermal Vibration
Impurities
Plastic Deformation

MATTHIESSENS RULE

thermal
impurities
deformation

INFLUENCE OF TEMPERATURE

For the pure metal and other copper-

nickel alloys,
the resistivity rises
linearly with temperature above
about -200 C.

Dependence of thermal resistivity

contribution on temperature:

This dependence of the thermal

resistivity
component
on
temperature is due to the increase
with
temperature
in
thermal
vibrations
&
other
lattice
irregularities, which serve as
electron-scattering centers.

INFLUENCE OF IMPURITIES
For additions of a single impurity that

forms a solid solution, the impurity

resistivity is related to the impurity
concentration in terms of the atom
fraction (at %/100) as follows:

where
A
is
a
compositionindependent constant that is a
function of both the impurity and

 For a two-phase consisting of and

phases, a rule-of-mixtures expression

may be used to approximate the
resistivity as follows:

where Vs and s represent volume

fractions and individual resistivities
for the respective phases.

INFLUENCE OF PLASTIC
DEFORMATION

Plastic deformation also raises the

electrical resistivity as a result of

increased numbers of
electronscattering dislocations.
Its influence is much weaker than
that of increasing temperature or the
presence of impurities.

SEM ICO N D U CTIVITY

Intrinsic Semiconductor
- are those in which the electrical
behavior is based on the electronic
structure inherent in the pure metal.
Extrinsic Semiconductor
when
the
electrical
characteristics
are
dictated
by
impurity atoms.

INTRINSIC SEMICONDUCTION
Intrinsic

semiconductors
are
characterized by the electron band
structure shown in Figure 18.4d: at 0
K, a completely filled valence band,
separated from an empty conduction
band by a relatively narrow forbidden
band gap, generally less than 2 eV.

2 Elemental Semiconductors
1. Silicon
2. Germanium
Concept of a Hole
In intrinsic semiconductors, for every
electron excited into the conduction
band there is left behind a missing
electron in one of the covalent bonds,
or in the band scheme, a vacant
electron state in the valence band.

 Under the influence of an electric

field, the position of this missing

electron within the crystalline lattice
may be thought of as moving by the
motion of other valence electrons
that repeatedly fill in the incomplete
bond.
A hole is considered to have a charge
that is of the same magnitude as
that for an electron, but of opposite
sign (1.6 1019 C).

- In the presence of electric field,

excited electrons and holes move in
opposite directions. Furthermore, in
semiconductors, both electrons and
holes are scattered by lattice
imperfections.

Intrinsic Conductivity
Electrical conductivity for an intrinsic
semiconductor dependence
on
electron/hole concentrations and
electron/hole mobilities.

where p is the number of holes

per cubic meter and h is always less
than e for semiconductors.

 For intrinsic semiconductors, every

electron promoted across the band

gap leaves behind a hole in the
valence band, thus;
n=p=ni

where n is known as intrinsic

carrier concentration
i

Conductivity in terms of intrinsic

carrier concentration

EXTRINSIC SEMICONDUCTION
2 Types
- n-Type Extrinsic Semiconduction
- p-Type Extrinsic Semiconduction

N-TYPE EXTRINSIC SEMICONDUCTOR

For an n-type extrinsic semiconductor,

dependence of conductivity on
concentration
and
mobility
of
electrons.

A material of this type is said to be

an n-type extrinsic semiconductor.

The electrons are majority carriers by
virtue of their density or
concentration; holes, on the other

P-TYPE EXTRINSIC SEMICONDUCTOR

An opposite effect is produced by the

addition to silicon or germanium of

trivalent substitutional impurities such
as aluminum, boron, and gallium from
Group IIIA of the periodic table.
One of the covalent bonds around each
of these atoms is deficient in an
electron; such a deficiency may be
viewed as a hole that is weakly bound
to the impurity atom.

 The electron and hole exchange

positions.
A moving hole is considered to be in
excited state and participates in the
conduction process, in a manner
analogous to an excited donor
electron.

For a p-type extrinsic semiconductor,

dependence of conductivity on
concentration and mobility holes

P-N RECTIFYIN G JU N CTIO N

 A rectifier, or diode, is an electronic

device that allows the current to

flow in one direction only.
Before the advent of the p-n junction
semiconductor
rectifier,
this
operation was carried out using the
vacuum tube diode.
The
p-n rectifying junction is
constructed from a single piece of
semiconductor that is doped so as
to be n-type on one side and p-type
on the other.

 If pieces of n- and p-type materials

are joined together, a poor rectifier

results, because the presence of a
surface b/w 2 section renders the
device very inefficient.

CAPACITAN CE

The capacitance C is related to the

quantity of charge stored on either
plate Q by:

where V is the voltage applied

across the capacitor.

Capacitance
for
a
parallel-plate
capacitor in a vacuum:

where A represents the area of the

plates and l is the distance between
them and 0 is the permittivity of a
vacuum, a universal constant having
the value of 8.85 x 10 ^ -12 F/m.

A dielectric material is one that is

electrically insulating ( nonmetallic )
and exhibits or may be made to
exhibit an electric dipole structure;
that is there is a separation of
positive and negative electrically
charged entities on a molecular or
atomic level.

Capacitance
for
a
parallel-plate
capacitor, with dielectric material:

where is the permittivity of this

dielectric medium which will be
greater in magnitude than o .

parallel-plate capacitor
vacuum is present:

when

parallel-plate capacitor when

dielectric material is present:

The relative permittivity r, dielectric

constant, is equal to the ratio:

FIELD VECTO RS AN D
PO LARIZATIO N

 The best approach to explain the

phenomenon of capacitance is with

the aid of field vectors.
For every electric dipole there is a
separation between a positive and a
negative electric charge.

An electric dipole moment, p, is

associated with each dipole as
follows:

where q is the magnitude of each

dipole charge and d is the distance
of separation between them.

 Dipole moment is a vector that is

directed from the negative to the

positive charge.
In the presence of an electric field,
which is also a vector quantity, a
force ( torque ) will come to bear on
an electric dipole to orient it with
the applied field. The process of
dipole
alignment
is
termed
polarization.

Types of Polarization

- Electronic Polarization
- Ionic Polarization
- Orientation Polarization

Electronic Polarization
-may be induced to one degree or
another in all atoms. It results from a
displacement of the center of the
negatively charged electron cloud
relative to the positive nucleus of an
atom by the electric field.
- this polarization type is found in
all dielectric materials and, of
course, exists only while an electric
field is present.

Ionic Polarization
- occurs only in materials that are
ionic.
- an applied field acts to displace
cations in one direction and anions in
the opposite direction, which gives
rise to a net dipole moment.
- The magnitude of the dipole
moment for each ion pair pi is equal
to the product of the relative
displacement di and the charge on
each ion.

Orientation Polarization
- found only in substances that
possess permanent dipole moments.
Polarization results from a rotation of
the permanent moments into the
direction of the applied field.

THE END
THANK YOU!!!

christian paul