Micro and Nanoelectronics

ELL732
Lecture 9 & 10

Dhiman Mallick
Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Delhi

1
Semester I – 2024 - 2025
Carrier Transport Mechanisms

The net flow of the electrons and holes in a semiconductor will generate currents.

The process by which these charged particles move is called transport.

Two basic transport mechanisms in a semiconductor crystal:

Drift - the movement of charge due to electric field,

Diffusion - the flow of charge due to density gradients.

Carrier Drift
An electric field applied to a semiconductor will produce a force on electrons and holes so that they will
experience a net acceleration and net movement, provided there are available energy states in the conduction
and valence bands. This net movement of charge due to an electric field is called drift. The net drift of charge
gives rise to a drift current.

If we have a positive volume charge density ρ moving at an average drift velocity vd, the drift current density is
given by

If the volume charge density is due to positively charged holes, then

where Jp|drf is the drift current density due to holes and vdp is the average drift velocity of the holes.

The equation of motion of a positively charged hole in the presence of an electric field is

where e is the magnitude of the electronic charge, a is the acceleration, E is the electric field, and m*cp is the
conductivity effective mass of the hole.
Drift Current Density
• As the hole accelerates in a crystal due to the electric field, the velocity increases.

• When the charged particle collides with an atom in the crystal, the particle loses most, or all, of its energy.

• The particle will again begin to accelerate and gain energy until it is again involved in a scattering process.
This continues over and over again.

• Throughout this process, the particle will gain an average drift velocity which, for low electric fields, is
directly proportional to the electric field.

We may then write:

where μp is the proportionality factor and is called the hole mobility.

Mobility: Defines how well a particle will move due to an electric field within a semiconductor. The unit of
mobility is expressed in terms of cm2/V-s.
Drift Current Density
Drift current density due to holes is given as

The drift current due to holes is in the same direction as the applied electric field.

The same discussion of drift applies to electrons. We may write

The average drift velocity of an electron is also proportional to the electric field for small fields. However, since
the electron is negatively charged, the net motion of the electron is opposite to the electric field direction.

where n is the electron mobility and is a positive quantity. Hence,

Drift Current Density
Both electrons and holes contribute to the drift current.

The total drift current density is the sum of the individual electron and hole drift current densities:

Some typical mobility values at T=300K for low doping concentrations.

Mobility Effects

Typical random behaviour of a hole in a semiconductor (a) without an electric field and (b) with an electric field.

The hole mobility is given by: m*cp/cn are the mean time between
collisions for a hole or an electron
The electron mobility is given by: τcp/cn are the mean time between
collisions for a hole or an electron
Mobility Effects
There are two collision or scattering mechanisms that dominate in a semiconductor and affect the carrier
mobility:

1. Phonon or lattice scattering

2. Ionized impurity scattering

Lattice scattering is related to the thermal motion of atoms, the rate at which the scattering occurs is a
function of temperature.

If we denote µL as the mobility that would be observed if only lattice scattering existed, the scattering
theory states that to first order

Mobility that is due to lattice scattering increases as the temperature decreases.

Mobility Effects

(a) Electron and (b) hole mobilities in silicon versus temperature for various doping concentrations.
Mobility Effects
 Ionized impurity scattering: Impurities are ionized at room temperature so that a coulomb interaction
exists between the electrons or holes and the ionized impurities.

 This coulomb interaction produces scattering or collisions and also alters the velocity characteristics of the
charge carrier.

 If we denote µI as the mobility that would be observed if only ionized impurity scattering existed, then to
first order we have

where NI N d N a is the total ionized impurity concentration in the semiconductor.

 If temperature increases, the random thermal velocity of a carrier increases, reducing the time the carrier
spends in the vicinity of the ionized impurity center. The less time spent in the vicinity of a coulomb force,
the smaller the scattering effect and the larger the expected value of µI

 If the number of ionized impurity centers increases, then the probability of a carrier encountering an
ionized impurity center increases, implying a smaller value of µI
Mobility Effects

Electron and hole mobilities versus impurity concentrations at T = 300 K.

Mobility Effects
If two scattering processes are independent, then the
total probability of a scattering event occurring in the
differential time dt is the sum of the individual events:

where is the mean time between any scattering event.

Then,

With two or more independent scattering mechanisms,

the inverse mobilities add, which means that the net
mobility decreases.
Conductivity and Resistivity
The drift current density is

where σ is the conductivity of the semiconductor

material.

The conductivity is given in units of (Ω-cm)-1 and is a

function of the electron and hole concentrations and
mobilities.

The reciprocal of conductivity is resistivity, ρ is given in

units of ohm-cm.
Conductivity and Resistivity

If we consider a p-type semiconductor with an acceptor

doping Na(Nd=0) in which Na>>ni,
and if we assume that the electron and hole mobilities
are of the same order of magnitude, the conductivity
becomes

If we also assume complete ionization,

The conductivity and resistivity of an extrinsic

semiconductor are a function primarily of the majority
carrier parameters.

Electron concentration and conductivity versus

inverse temperature for silicon.
Diffusion Current Density Electron diffusion current density for one-dimensional
case:

where Dn is called the electron diffusion coefficient, has

units of cm2/s, and is a positive quantity.

If the electron density gradient becomes negative, the

electron diffusion current density will be in the negative x
direction.

Hole diffusion current density for one-dimensional case:

where Dp is called the hole diffusion coefficient, has units

of cm2/s, and is a positive quantity.

If the hole density gradient becomes negative, the hole

(a) Diffusion of electrons due to a density gradient. (b) diffusion current density will be in the positive x direction.
Diffusion of holes due to a density gradient.
Total Current Density
The total current density is the sum of these four components, or, for the one-dimensional case,

This equation may be generalized to three dimensions as

The electron mobility and diffusion coefficient are not independent parameters.
Graded Impurity Distribution
In many semiconductor devices, there may be regions that are nonuniformly doped.

Separation of positive and negative charge induces an

electric field that is in a direction to oppose the diffusion
process.

Since we have an electric field, there will be a potential

difference through the semiconductor due to the nonuniform
doping.
The Einstein Relation
The diffusion coefficient and mobility are not independent parameters.

The relation between the mobility and diffusion coefficient is known as the Einstein relation.
High Field Effects
 It is assumed that the drift current is proportional to the electric
field and that the proportionality constant σ is not a function of
field E. This assumption is valid over a wide range of E.

 However, large electric fields (> 103 V/cm) can cause the drift
velocity and therefore the current to exhibit a sublinear
dependence on the electric field.

 This dependence of σ upon E is an example of a hot carrier effect,

which implies that the carrier drift velocity vd is comparable to the
thermal velocity vth.

 In many cases an upper limit is reached for the carrier drift velocity
in a high field.  This behaviour is typical of Si, Ge, and some
other semiconductors.
 This limit occurs near the mean thermal velocity (≃107 cm/s) and
represents the point at which added energy imparted by the field is  A decrease in electron velocity at high fields
transferred to the lattice rather than increasing the carrier velocity. for GaAs and certain other materials results
in negative conductivity and current
 The result of this scattering limited velocity is a fairly constant instabilities in the sample.
current at high field.
(a) A Si bar 1 µm long and 100 µm2 in cross-sectional area is doped with 1017 cm-3 phosphorus. Find the current at 300
K with 10 V applied.
(b) How long does it take an average electron to drift 1 µm in pure Si at an electric field of 100 V/cm? Repeat for 105
V/cm.
In an n-type semiconductor bar, there is an increase in electron concentration from left to right and an electric field
pointing to the left. With a suitable sketch, indicate the directions of the electron drift and diffusion current flow and
explain why. If we double the electron concentration everywhere, what happens to the diffusion current and the drift
current? If we add a constant concentration of electrons everywhere, what happens to the drift and diffusion currents?
References

• Semiconductor Physics and Devices- Basic Principles by

Donald A. Neamen

• Solid State Electronic Devices by Ben G. Streetman and

Sanjay Kumar Banerjee

• Physics of Semiconductor Devices by S.M. Sze and Kwok K.

Ng

• State-of-the-art Research Papers

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