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Ben. G. Streetman and Sanjay Banerjee: Solid State
Electronic Devices, Prentice-Hall of India Private
Limited.
Chapter 3
Bonding forces in Solids
Bond: The interaction of electrons in neighboring atoms is called bond.
Ionic bond: Ionic bonds are a type of chemical bond based on electrostatic
forces between two oppositely-charged ions.
In ionic bond formation, a metal donates an electron, due to a low
electronegativity to form a positive ion.
The bonds between the sodium (Na) and chlorine (Cl) ions are ionic bonds.
The electronic structure of Na (Z=11) is [Ne]3s1, and Cl(Z=17) has the structure
[Ne]3s23p5.
Na atom gives up its outer 3s electron to a Cl atom, so that the crystal is made up
of ions with electronic structures of the inert atoms Ne and Ar.
However, the ions have net electric charges after the electron exchange.
The Na+ ion has a net positive charge, having lost an electron, and the Cl- ion has
a net negative charge, having gained an electron.
Once the electron exchanges have been made between the Na and Cl atoms to
form Na+ and Cl- ions, the outer orbits of all atoms are completely filled.
Since the ions have the closed-shell configurations of the inert atoms Ne and Ar,
there are no loosely bound electrons to participate in current flow; as a result,
NaCl is a good insulator.
Metallic bond: Metallic bonding is the bonding within metals. It
involves the delocalized sharing of free electrons among a lattice
(the periodic arrangement of atoms in a crystal is called the lattice)
of metal atoms.
In a metal atom the outer electron shell is only partially filled,
usually by no more than three electrons.
In Na has only one electron in the outer orbit.
This electron is loosely bound and is given up easily in ion
formation.
In the metal the outer electron of each alkali atom is contributed to
the crystal as a whole, so that the solid is made up of ions with
closed shells immersed in a sea of free electrons.
The forces holding the lattice together arise from an interaction
between the positive ion cores and the surrounding free electrons.
This is one type of metallic bonding.
The metals have the sea of electrons in common, and these
electrons are free to move about the crystal under the influence of
an electric field.
Covalent bond: Covalent bonding is an intermolecular form of
chemical bonding characterized by the sharing of one or more
pairs of electrons between two components, producing a mutual
attraction that holds the resultant molecule together.
Atoms tend to share electrons in such a way that their outer
electron shells are filled.
Atom in the Ge, Si, or C diamond lattice is surrounded by four
nearest neighbors, each with four electrons in the outer orbit.
In these crystals each atom shares its valence electrons with its
four neighbors.
The bonding forces arise from a quantum mechanical interaction
between the shared electrons.
This is known as covalent bonding; each electron pair constitutes a
covalent bond.
Energy Bands
The electron in an isolated atom has discrete energy level but
the electron in a solid has a range, or band, of available
energies.
The discrete energy levels of the isolated atom spread into
bands of energies in the solid because in the solid the wave
functions of electrons in neighboring atoms overlap, and an
electron is not necessarily localized at a particular atom.
As isolated atoms are brought together to form a solid,
various interactions occur between neighboring atoms.
The forces of attraction and repulsion between atoms will find
a balance at the proper interatomic spacing for the crystal.
In the process, important changes occur in the electron energy
level configuration and these changes result in the varied
electrical properties of solid.
Metals, Semiconductors, and Insulators
Insulator: A very poor conductor of electricity is
called an insulator.
In an insulator material the valance band
is filled while the conduction band is empty.
The conduction band and valance band in
the insulator are separated by a large forbidden
band or energy gap (almost 10 eV).
In an insulator material, the energy which
can be supplied to an electron from a applied field
is too small to carry the particle from the field
valance band into the empty conduction band.
Since the electron cannot acquire
sufficient applied energy, conduction is
impossible in an insulator.
Semiconductor: A substance whose conductivity lies between
insulator and conductor is a semiconductor.
A substance for which the width of the forbidden energy
region is relatively small (almost 1 eV) is called semiconductor.
In a semiconductor material, the energy which can be supplied to
an electron from a applied field is too small to carry the particle
from the field valance band into the empty conduction band at 0
K.
As the temperature is increased, some of the valance band
electrons acquire thermal energy. Thus, the semiconductors allow
for excitation of electrons from the valance band to conduction
band.
These are now free electrons in the sense that they can move
about under the influence of even a small-applied field.
E = 1 mv2 = 1 Pm2 = h2 k 2
2 2 2m
Thus the electron energy is parabolic with wave vector k.
The electron mass is inversely related to the curvature
(second derivative) of the (E, k) relation, since
d 2E = h2
dk 2 m
m* = h2
d 2E / dk 2
Solution:
From above figure, Ea-EF={0.03-(1.1-0.2)} eV= -0.87 eV
kT= 8.62×10-5 eV/K×320=2758.4 eV
we know that,
1 1
f ( Ea ) = ( Ea − E F ) / kT
= = 1.0
1+ e −0.87 /( 2758.4×10−5 )
1+ e
Electron and Hole Concentrations at Equilibrium
The concentration of electron and hole in the conduction band and
valance are
∞
n0 = ∫E f ( E ) N ( E )dE (3.12a )
c
1 −( E F − Ev ) / kT
1 − f ( Ev ) = 1 − ( Ev − E F ) / kT
=e (3.17)
1+ e
n0 p0 = N c e−( Ec − EF ) / kT N v e−( EF − Ev ) / kT
− ( Ec − Ev ) / kT − E g / kT
n0 p0 = N c N v e = Nc Nve (3.22)
From Eq. (21), we obtain ni pi = N c e −( Ec − Ei ) / kT N v e −( Ei − Ev ) / kT
− ( Ec − Ev ) / kT − E g / kT
ni pi = N c N v e = Nc Nve (3.23)
From Eqs. (3.22) and (3.23), the product of n0 and p0 at equilibrium is
a constant for a particular material and temperature, even if the
doping is varied.
The intrinsic electron and hole concentrations are equal, ni=pi; thus
from Eq. (3.23) the intrinsic concentrations is
− E g / 2 kT
ni = N c N v e (3.24)
The constant product of electron and hole concentrations in Eq. (3.24)
can be written conveniently from (3.22) and (3.23) as
n0 p0 = ni2 (3.25)
We know that n = n e( E F − Ei ) / kT
0 i
The resulting band diagram
⎡ n0 ⎤ is
EF − Ei = kT ln ⎢ ⎥
⎣ ni ⎦
⎡ 1017 ⎤
EF − Ei = 0.0259 ln ⎢ 10 ⎥
⎣1.5 × 10 ⎦
EF − Ei = 0.407 eV
End of
Chapter 3