Semicon Talk 1
Semicon Talk 1
Semicon Talk 1
A Zincblende: ABCABC…
B
C Wurtzite: ABABAB…
From http://kottan-labs.bgsu.edu/teaching/workshop2001/chapter5.htm
Growth (layers)
• MOCVD (Metal-
Organic Chemical
Vapor Deposition)
• Also known as
MOVPE, etc.
• Growth temperatures
near melting point
• Growth rate ~1
µm/min.
From http://kottan-labs.bgsu.edu/teaching/workshop2001/chapter5.htm
Fun facts about AsH3
From http://kottan-labs.bgsu.edu/teaching/workshop2001/chapter5.htm
Doping
• Adding impurities to alter the
electrical properties
• n-type (donors) or p-type
(acceptors)
• Deep or shallow
• Single/double/triple
n-type p-type
Si Doped with Group V Si Doped with Group III
Doping
• Shallow donors can be modeled as hydrogen atoms
in a dielectric medium.
• The donor electron level is only a few (6-50) meV
below conduction band.
• Hydrogen-like and helium-like levels are observed.
Doping
• Grown in
• Diffusion
• Neutron transmutation
(30Si(n,g)31Si --> 31P + b-, T1/2=2.6 hr.)
• Ion implantation
Characterization (electrical)
Hall effect enables
determination of:
• charge of carriers
• density of carriers
• binding energy of
carriers (temperature
dependent)
Characterization (optical)
Infrared (IR) spectroscopy
allows determination of:
• impurity species
• electronic and vibrational
energies of impurities
No bias
Reverse bias –
(no current)
+
Forward bias
–
(current)
+
Field Effect Transistor (FET)
Light Emitting Diode (LED)
• Is basically a pn-junction
• When an electron and a hole
collide, a photon (light) is emitted.
The energy of the light is “equal”
to the bandgap energy.
Si bandgap ≈ 1.2 eV (infrared)
GaAs bandgap ≈ 1.5 eV (red)
• Defects in crystal can cause
electron-hole collisions to occur
without emission of light (non-
radiative recombination).
Laser Diode (LD)
• Is basically a pn-junction
• Same principle as LEDs, however,
waveguides are added to the structure to
enable the light to reach lasing intensities.
Some surfaces are polished mirror-flat to
allow light to reflect back and forth inside
the active region.
• Much better material quality (smaller
density of defects) is required for LDs than
LEDs.
Other applications
• Radiation detectors
Radiation hitting the material knocks an electron
from the valence to the conduction band, creating
a free carrier. An applied voltage sweeps the
carrier out of the material where it is detected as
current.
• Solar cells
Again, a pn-junction. Light creates an electron-
hole pair which is forced out of the material as
electric current by the electric field in the
depletion region.