Energy Band and Charge Carriers In

Semiconductors
 Density of States
Electrons can only have specific energies

When Many atoms are brought together those specific energy level become bands
of energy.

An energy band have multiple states which can be occupied.

How many states can we have in a small range of energy ΔE?

This is called the density of States.

N ( E )dE
 Fermi-Dirac Statistic
Electrons can be only have specific energy levels.
What is the probability that an energy level will be occupied by an
electrons
Given by the fermi distribution function. Derived in appendix 5.
Just know it for now.

1 kT = 0.0259eV at room
f (E)  ( E  E F ) / kT
1 e
temperature

E F Is the called the Fermi Energy Level. It correspond to that

energy where the probability of finding electrons is 0.5
 Fermi-Dirac Statistic
f (E ) is symmetric about EF
1
f (E)  ( E  E F ) / kT
1 e f (E ) changes with temperature

f (E )
T=0K
T=T1
1
T2>T1
1 T=T2
2

EF E
 Intrinsic Semiconductor
An intrinsic semiconductor is a conductor that has not been doped

At 0K At Room Temperature
Conduction band

Eg Ei jump
Valence band

Valence Band is completely filled Thermal Energy causes electrons to leave

Conduction Band is completely empty valence band for conduction band. Holes
There is a forbidden energy gap (Eg) that created in valence band and electrons
prevents electrons from jumping to the appear in conduction band
conduction band
Eg for Si ≈1.11eV Number of electrons in conduction band is
Semiconductor is a quasi insulator equal to number of holes created in valence
band
 Intrinsic Semiconductor

At 0K At Room Temperature
Conduction band

Eg Ei jump
Valence band

For Intrinsic semiconductors the Fermi Level is almost

at the midband and is called the intrinsic Fermi Level Ei
 Extrinsic Semiconductor
A semiconductor becomes extrinsic when it is doped with impurities.

Group V atoms have 5 valence electrons Group III atoms have 3 valence electrons
Silicon has 4 valence electrons. Silicon has 4 valence electrons.
After covalent bonding, there is an extra After covalent bonding, there is a missing
electron that do not fit in the bonding electron in the bonding structure. The structure
structure. The structure is neutral, but has the is neutral, but has the tendency to attract
tendency to attract holes. Group V atoms are electrons. Group III atoms are called
called donors. acceptors.
 Extrinsic Semiconductor

Edonor Eg Eg
EF 2
Eg Ei Ei
Eg EF
2 Eacceptor

Donor atoms give electrons to the conduction Acceptor atoms accept electrons from the
band and becomes positively charged valence band and becomes negatively charged

Donor energy is near the conduction band. So Acceptor energy is near the valence band. So
electrons can easily jump in conduction. As a electrons can easily jump out the valence
result conductivity is increased band. Conductivity is …………(careful here)

Fermi level go up Fermi level is lowered

 Charge Neutrality
The concentration of donor atoms is usually called N d and
they ionized to N d

The concentration of acceptor atoms is usually called N a and

they ionized to N a

The effective number of electrons in the conduction band is

denoted n0
The effective number of holes in the valence band is denoted p0

Charge Neutrality requires that

n0  N a  p0  N d
 We can derive n0and p0 from f (E ) and N (E )
The number of energy states is N ( E )dE
The probability of finding electrons is f (E )
The probability of finding holes (electron vacancies is) 1  f ( E )
 Electrons and Holes at Equilibrium

 EV

n0   f ( E ) N ( E )dE
Ec
p0   1  f ( E )N ( E )dE


Fermi distribution was provided earlier. Here we introduce two

new terms.

The effective density of states in the conduction and valence band

denoted by NC and NV respectively.
3/ 2
 2m kT 


n0  N C e  ( EC  EF ) / KT N C  2 n
2

 h 
3/ 2
 2m kT  

NV  2  p
p0  NV e  ( EF  EV ) / KT   2
 h 
 The n0 p0 product
n0  N C e  ( EC  EF ) / kT
p0  NV e  ( E F  EV ) / kT
If we assume no doping (Intrinsic case)
ni  N C e  ( EC  Ei ) / kT n0  ni e ( EF  Ei ) / kT

pi  NV e  ( Ei  EV ) / kT p0  ni e ( Ei  EF ) / KT

n0 p0  N C NV e  ( EC  EV ) / kT  ni pi

Note that ni=pi. So we must always have that

n0 p0  ni2 ni  1.5  1010 cm 3

 The n0 p0 product

n0 p0  ni2

n0  N a  p0  N d
Therefore, we have that
Nd  Na  Nd  Na 
2

n0      ni
2
If Nd>>Na no=Nd
2  2 

Na  Nd  Na  Nd 
2
If Na>>Nd po=Na
p0      ni
2

2  2 