Solar Photovoltaic Technologies

Lecture-5
Charge Carriers in Semiconductor

Prof. C.S. Solanki

Department of Energy Science and Engineering
IIT Bombay
Recap of last lecture
“Electronic Arrangement of atoms,
formation of bands, direct and indirect
band gap semiconductors”

2
 Today’s learning objective

1. Charge Carriers in their numbers

- Semiconductors used in solar cells
- P-type and N-type semiconductor
- Intrinsic and extrinsic semiconductor
- Majority and minority carriers
- Number of carriers in semiconductor

2. Distribution of charge carriers in different

energy levels
- Fermi Dirac distribution
- Equilibrium carrier concentration
3
 Semiconductors
• Elemental semiconductor

Part of periodic table

II III IV V VI
B C(6)
Al Si(14) P S
Zn Ga Ge(32) As Se
Cd In Sb Te

4
 Compound semiconductors
• Elemental semiconductors: Si, Ge
• Compound semiconductors: GaAs, InP
• Ternary semiconductors: AlGaAs, HgCdTe
• Quaternary semiconductors: InGaAsP, InGaAlP

Elemental IV Binary III-V Binary II-VI

Compounds
Si SiGe AlP CdTe
Ge SiC GaAs CdS
As InP ZnS
GaP CdSe
5
 Charge Carriers in Semiconductors
• At 0K temperature Si behaves like an insulator due to
empty conduction band
•As the temperature rises above 0K, conduction band
electrons increases due to thermal excitation across the band
gap

Ec

Electron Eg Hole
EHP
Ev

At 0K At Temp > 0K

6
 Charge carriers
• Empty state in VB is called a hole, contributes in
the process of conduction. A hole can be regarded
as a free particle with positive charge.
•Conduction band electron and corresponding
valence band hole is together known as electron-
hole pair (EHP).
• Si atom density is about 5x1022 atoms/cm3 while at
room temperature there are about 1010 EHP/cm3.

• Two types of charge carriers: Holes and electrons

7
 Intrinsic Semiconductor (Si)
• Comment: Si is first purified to very high degree,
99.999999999%, before making devices in it.
Si Intrinsic : when
e-
no impurities are
h+ added to the
material

At the equilibrium
Recombination rate, ri = gi, Generation rate
(electron/cm3) n = p (hole / cm3) n(Si)=1010 EHP/cm3

8
 Extrinsic semiconductor
•Extrinsic semiconductor: when desired impurities are added
to obtain the desired change in the conductivity
• The process of adding impurities to a semiconductor is
called Doping
Si
P-type
h+ semiconductor
Al

•Addition of impurities with three valence electrons results in

available empty energy state, a hole
• B, Al, In, Ga (Acceptor impurities)
•Holes are in the majority  majority carrier concentration
9
 P-type semiconductor
Ec
Eg
Ea Ea
Ev

T = 0K T  300K
• Acceptor energy level is very close (energetically) to
valence band edge, Ex: Ea-Ev = 0.03 to 0.06 eV for Si
•Acceptance of a valence band electrons by an acceptor level
and the resulting creation of holes (partially empty band)
•Conduction of current is possible in a partially empty energy
band, but not in completely filled energy band
10
If we need to generate 1016 holes / cm3 in Si,
what should be the number of Al atoms per
million atoms of Si ?

11
 N-type semiconductor

Si
N-type
Sb semiconductor
e-

•Addition of impurities with five valence electrons results an

extra electron available current conduction
• P, As, Sb (donor impurities)
• Electron are in the majority  majority carrier concentration
12
 N-type semiconductor

Ed Ec E
d

Ev

Eg
T = 0K T  300K
• Donor energy level is very close (energetically) to
conduction band edge, Ex: Ec-Ed = 0.03 to 0.06 eV for Si

• An electron at the donor level is excited to the conduction band

• In conduction band there are large number of energy levels are
available, electron can hop from one level to another
13
 Effective mass of carries
• Carries in a crystal are not completely free, as they are in
free space
• The influences of lattice is accounted by considering the
effective mass of the carries

For Si particles effective masses

are given as: Where mo is mass in
the free space,
m  1.1 mo
*
n
Subscript n, p stands
for electron and holes
m  0.56 mo
*
p
respectively

14
 Carrier concentrations
How many carriers (electron and holes) are there in a
semiconductor?
• Intrinsic carrier concentration for Si, ni, pi

ni, pi =1010 #/cm3

• How many electrons are there in a semiconductor after
doping?
Donor doping density, Nd #/cm3
Acceptor doping density, Na #/cm3

if N d  1016 #/ cm3 , n0  ? where n0 and p0 are electron

if N a  1016 #/ cm3 , p0  ? and hole concentration at
equilibrium
15
 Distribution of carriers: The Fermi Level
• Fermi-Dirac statistics Defines the distribution of carriers over
the available energy states, follows the Pauli’s Exclusion
Principle and other laws
•Distribution of electrons over the range of allowed energy
levels at the thermal equilibrium is:

1 K –Boltzman’s constant
f (E)  ( E  EF ) / kT
1.38x10-23 J/K
1 e 8.62x10-5 eV/K

• The function f(E) gives the probability that an available

energy state at E will be occupied by an electron at
temperature T.
• Ef is called as Fermi level
16
 Carrier distribution in energy levels-1
Fermi-Dirac distribution function
1
f (E)  ( E  EF ) / kT
f(E) 1 e
1 T=0K At E = Ef f(E) =1/2
T1
1/2 T2 > T1
•At T=0K, f(E) take
rectangular shape
Ef E
• At T1 > T = 0K
f(E) in non zero for E >Ef

17
 Carrier distribution in energy levels-2
•The distribution is symmetrical about the Fermi level
•If f(E) is the probability of an available state occupied by
electron  (1-f(E)) is the probability of finding an empty states
• In intrinsic Si, the Fermi level lies in-between the conduction
band and valence band

E Ef
1

1/2
f(E)

Intrinsic Si
18
 Fermi-Dirac distribution: N-type Si
•Doping of impurities causes the shift in the Fermi level
•For the N-type material the Fermi level shift towards the
conduction band edge, shifting is proportional to the doping
level

E Ef
1

1/2
f(E)

N-type Si
19
 Fermi-Dirac distribution: P-type Si
•For P-type material Fermi level shift towards the valence
band edge, shifting is proportional to the doping level

E Ef
1

1/2
f(E)

P-type Si

20
 Equilibrium carrier concentration


Carrier concentration can be n  f ( E ) N ( E )dE

Ec
found by know the densities
Ev
of states, N(E) and probability
of those stated being filled or
p  (1  f ( E )) N ( E )dE

empty
N (E)  E

E E E
Ec
EF
Ev

Intrinsic
N(E) f(E) Carrier Conc.
21
 Equilibrium carrier concentration,p0 &n0
n0
Ec
EF
Ev

N-type
N(E) f(E) Carrier Conc.

Ec
EF
Ev
p0
P-type f(E)
N(E) Carrier Conc.
22
 Carrier concentration, n0, p0
Effective density of states, Nc at Ec = distributed electron
states in the conduction band
Effective density of states, Nv at Ev = distributed hole states
in the valence band
n0  N c f ( Ec ) Where f(Ec) is probability of
finding an electron state
p0  N v (1  f ( Ev )) occupied at Ec.

3 3
 2 m*p kT  Nc, Nv are
 2 m kT 
* 2 2
Nc  2  n
 Nv  2   function of
2  h2
 h    Temp. only

23
 Carrier concentration, n0, p0

n0  N c f ( Ec ) Assumption:
1 EF is several kT below the Ec
 Nc ( Ec  EF ) / kT
1 e
 ( Ec  EF ) / kT EF closer to Ec in energy
 Nce band diagram suggest
higher doping
p0  N v (1  f ( Ev ))
Assumption:
 ( EF  Ev ) / kT
 Nve EF is several kT above the Ev

24
 Carrier concentration, ni, pi

For the intrinsic semiconductors the Fermi level lies in

the middle of the band gap,
 Ef = Ei intrinsic level

 ( Ec  Ei ) / kT  ( Ei  Ev ) / kT
ni  N c e pi  N v e
n0 p0 Using the above relations, some
? pi
? interesting relationships can be
ni obtained
( EF  Ei ) / kT ( Ei  EF ) / kT
no  ni e po  pi e
Extrinsic carrier concentrations in terms of intrinsic carrier con.
25
 Relating n0 p0 with ni

Find out n0 p0  ni pi

n0 p0  ni  pi 2 2 Very important relationship and

used often in the calculations

Problem: A Si sample is doped with 1016 B atoms/cm3.

(a) What is the equilibrium electron concentration?
(b) What is the position of Fermi level relative to Ei?

26
 Temp. dependence of n0 & p0
( EF  Ei ) / kT
no  ni e
3

 ( Ec  Ei ) / kT  2 mn* kT  2

ni  N c e Nc  2 
 h 2 


n0 depends on temp (T), but ni is

also function of Temp.
n0 is bit complex function of temp.

27
 500 300 Temp.
dependence of ni

Ge
1014

ni if fixed for a
Si given material,
can be assumed
to be given
1010 when solving
problem
GaAs

106
3 4
1000/T K-1 28
Carrier conc. Vs Temp.

29
 Space charge neutrality & compensation
Nd > Na

Some of the hole (=Na) will

Ed
EF be compensated by the
electron from the conduction
Ei
Ea band
The net electron concentration
will be?
T  300K
n0 = Nd - Na

Due to the doping material will remain electrically neutral

 
n0  N a  p0  N d
30
 Fermi level at Equilibrium
There can not be any gradient or discontinuity in the Fermi
level at equilibrium

E There in no net current  no net

EF charge transfer  no net energy
Material-1 Material-2
transfer
N1(E) N2(E)
f1(E)
Transfer of electron from 1 to 2 =
f2(E)
x Transfer of electron from 2 to 1(for
the same energy level)

N1 ( E ) f1 ( E ) * N 2 ( E )(1  f 2 ( E ))  N 2 ( E ) f 2 ( E ) * N1 ( E )(1  f1 ( E ))
f1 ( E )  f 2 ( E )
Fermi level is invariant at
EF 1  EF 2 Equilibrium
31