Lecture 10
Direct and Indirect Band Gap
Recap: Most energy bands are close to parabolic at their minima (for conduction
band) or maxima for valence band. In the reciprocal space at reciprocal lattice
points electron undergoes diffraction by the lattice, causing a discontinuity in the
E k diagram. These discontinuities at these points are basically the gaps states. As
energy increases , the gaps become larger and larger.
The Dynamics of Charge Carriers
To discuss the different types of absorption in semiconductors, let’s understand
just a little bit about the dynamics of charge carriers, and the relationship between
photon energies, the band gap in semiconductors, and momentum of charge
carriers. The force on a charge carrier in a crystal is F = m*a, or the product of
“effective mass” and acceleration. This makes the kinetic energy of a charge
carrier in a crystal
where p is the momentum of the charge carrier and m* is the effective mass.
Furthermore, during electron excitation, a photon is absorbed by an electron, and
therefore the energy difference between the electron’s final and initial energy states
is the energy of the photon. Thus we have that
where Ee is the original energy of the crystal, Ea is the final state of the crystal after
the photon is absorbed, h is Planck’s constant, and f is the corresponding frequency
of the photon.
The matching equations for the energies of an electron in the conduction band and
hole in the valence band are as follows:
1
where Ec is the energy level of the minimum edge of the conduction band, Ev is the
energy at the edge of the valence band, and mn* and mp* are the effective masses of
electrons and holes respectively (which are actually different from each other).
These equations mean that the electron’s energy due to its momentum is the
difference between its “relaxed” state of the crystal before photon absorption and
the conduction band energy level, and the hole’s energy is the difference between
its energy state in the valence band and the energy of the crystal after photon
absorption. These equations are just a result of conservation of energy and
momentum; the photon absorption must result in an energy change in both the
electron and hole in such a way that the momentum of each is increased with
kinetic energy. The momentum imparted on the crystal is small, but the quantity is
squared for a greater effect.
Fig. 1: The energy level difference, Eg, between the edges of the conduction and
valence bands constitutes the minimum energy a electron requires from a photon to
become conductive (a free charge carrier).
Absorption Coefficient for Direct Semiconductors
Adding the two previous equations together produces a very useful result for
explaining absorption in a certain class of semiconductors. If we do this, we get
2
where Eg (illustrated in the Fig. 1 above) is the energy required to cross the band
gap and hf is the energy of the absorbed photon. It turns out this equation holds
true for a type of semiconductor called a direct semiconductor, because the
absorption conditions are purely based on the band gap of the material and the
photon energy. This is because the curves relating energy to crystal momentum are
aligned, and therefore the crystal momentum increases directly as a result of
increased photon energy.
Fig. 2: The valence band and conduction band curves in a graph of energy vs.
crystal momentum are aligned if the semiconductor has a direct band gap
The band gap represents the minimum energy difference between the top of the
valence band and the bottom of the conduction band, however, the top of the
valence band and the bottom of the conduction band are not generally at the same
value of the electron momentum. In a direct band gap semiconductor, the top of
the valence band and the bottom of the conduction band occur at the same value
of momentum, as in the
schematic below.
3
Figure 3 Direct Band Gap
Generalizing the Absorption Coefficient
To generalize mathematically the energy relations given in the first section of this
page for the valence and conduction bands, we can think of the curves of the two
bands as being “misaligned”, with minimums/maximums being separated by some
distance on the crystal momentum axis. Therefore, the minimum of the conduction
band would be at some finite value of crystal momentum, such that
where p0 and p0' are the respective shifts in the crystal momentum for the
conduction and valence bands (see Fig. 4 below).
We can see from these equations that if p0 = p0', the semiconductor has a direct
band gap, because an increase in photon energy directly correlates to an increase in
crystal momentum. If p0 ≠ p0', then the band gap is called indirect.
In an indirect band gap semiconductor, the maximum energy of the valence band
occurs at a different value of momentum to the minimum in the conduction band
energy:
4
Figure 4 Indirect Band Gap
The difference between the two is most important in optical devices. As has been
mentioned in the section charge carriers in semiconductors, a photon can provide
the energy to produce an electron-hole pair. Each photon of energy E has
momentum p = E / c, where c is the velocity of light. An optical photon has an
energy of the order of 10–19 J, and, since c = 3 × 108 ms–1, a typical photon has a
very small amount of momentum.
A photon of energy Eg, where Eg is the band gap energy, can produce an electron-
hole pair in a direct band gap semiconductor quite easily, because the electron does
not need to be given very much momentum. However, an electron must also
undergo a significant change in its momentum for a photon of energy Eg to produce
an electron-hole pair in an indirect band gap semiconductor. This is possible, but it
requires such an electron to interact not only with the photon to gain energy, but
also with a lattice vibration called a phonon in order to either gain or lose
momentum.
The indirect process proceeds at a much slower rate, as it requires three entities to
intersect in order to proceed: an electron, a photon and a phonon. This is analogous
to chemical reactions, where, in a particular reaction step, a reaction between two
molecules will proceed at a much greater rate than a process which involves three
molecules. The same principle applies to recombination of electrons and holes to
produce photons. The recombination process is much more efficient for a direct
band gap semiconductor than for an indirect band gap semiconductor, where the
process must be mediated by a phonon.
As a result of such considerations, gallium arsenide and other direct band gap
semiconductors are used to make optical devices such as LEDs and semiconductor
lasers, whereas silicon, which is an indirect band gap semiconductor, is not.
5
Differentiate between direct and
indirect band gap semiconductors
Direct band-gap (DBG) Indirect band-gap (IBG) semiconductor
semiconductor
6
A direct band-gap (DBG) An Indirect band-gap (IBG) semiconductor is one in which
semiconductor is one in which the the maximum energy level of the valence band and the
maximum energy level of the valence minimum energy level of the conduction band are misaligned
band aligns with the minimum energy with respect to momentum.
level of the conduction band with
respect to momentum. In case of a IBG semiconductor, due to a relative difference
in the momentum, first, the momentum is conserved by
In a DBG semiconductor, a direct release of energy and only after the both the momenta align
recombination takes place with the themselves, a recombination occurs accompanied with the
release of the energy equal to the release of energy.
energy difference between the
recombining particles. The probability of a radiative recombination is comparatively
low.
The efficiency factor of a IBG semiconductor is lower.
The probability of a radiative
recombination is high.
The efficiency factor of a DBG The indirect process proceeds at a much slower rate, as it
semiconductor is higher. Thus, DBG requires three entities to intersect in order to proceed: an
semiconductors are always preferred electron, a photon and a phonon.
over IBG for making optical sources.
A photon of energy Eg, where Eg is The two well-known intrinsic semiconductors, Silicon and
the band gap energy, can produce an Germanium are both IBG semiconductors.
electron-hole pair in a direct band gap
semiconductor quite easily, because
the electron does not need to be given The IBG semiconductors cannot be used to manufacture
very much momentum. optical sources.
The most thoroughly investigated and
studied DBG semiconductor material
is Gallium Arsenide (GaAs).
DBG semiconductors are always
preferred over IBG for making optical
sources.
