Experiment:-6
AIM:-
To determine the band gap of given semi conductor by using four probe
method
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE APPARATUS REQUIRED
CONSTANT CUREENT POWER SUPPLY:
It is a IC regulated current generator to provide a constant current to the
outer probes irrespective of the changing resistance of the sample due to
change in temperatures.
The supply is highly regulated and practically ripple free d.c. source. The
current is measured by digital panel meters.
ON/OFF:
A toggle switch to ON the instrument.
LEVEL:
It is a variable potentiometer to vary output current.
M.V.METER:
Digital mill voltmeter is to measure the potential across crystal.
CURRENT METER (mA):
Measure current passing through crystal.
SOCKETS:
Two big socket for connecting to current output sockets and small sockets
are for input to mill voltmeter.
PROBES ARRANGEMENT :
It has four individually spring loaded probes, coated with Zn at the tips.
The probes are colinear and equally spaced. The whole arrangement is mounted
on a suitable stand and leads are provided for current and voltage measurements.
This is easily mounted on the oven. A handle is provided for handling this
arrangement.
SAMPLE :
Ge or Si crystal in the form of a chip/slice
OVEN :
It is to heat the crystal, mounted at the top of the oven. Thermometer to
reads temperature in centigrade. A voltage regulator is provided to control the
heat. A glowing LED indicates, when the OVEN’s heat start.
FOUR PROBES SET-UP : (MEASURING UNIT)
It has three subunits all enclosed in one cabinet.
1
INTRODUCTION
The properties of the bulk material used for the fabrication of transistors
and other semiconductor devices are essential in determining the characteristics
of the completed devices. Resistivity and lifetime (of minority carriers)
measurements are generally made on germanium crystals to determine their
suitability. The resistivity, in particular, must be measured accurately since its
value is critical in many devices. The value of some transistor parameters, like
the equivalent base resistance, are at least linearly related to the resistivity.
ELECTRONIC CONDUCTION IN SOLIDS
The electrical properties of semiconductors involve the motion of charged
particles within them. Therefore, we must have an understanding of the forces
which control the motion of these particles. It is of course, the physical structure
of the solid which exerts their control. This topic is very large, and hence only
the high lights will be covered. The reader is referred to many excellent sources
which are listed at the end, for more details on specific aspects.
Atoms, of which a solid is composed, consist of positively charged nuclei
with electron orbiting around them. The positive charge is compensated by
negatively charged electrons, so that a complete atom is electrically neutral.
Electrons are arranged in shells, and the closer they are to the nucleus the more
strongly they are bound. If we take the particular case of silicon, a well known
semiconductor, we find that it has 14 electrons which are accommodated in the
shells as (1S)2, (2S)2, (2P)6, (3S)2, (3P)2. Since the third shell is not even half
filled, the 4 electrons are available for chemical binding giving silicon a valency
of four. (Germanium also has a chemical valency of 4, but from the fourth
shell). Fig. 1 shows an energy diagram of an individual atom.
Let us now concentrate our attention on solids, if we bring many atoms
close to one another, interatomic forces become quite strong as electronic orbits
begin to overlap. The outer shell electrons play an important role, because their
orbits are the most disturbed. These electrons are no longer associated with a
particular atom, the outer shell electron may make an orbit around one atom and
continue about another. In this fashion, the outer shell or valency electrons are
continually traded among atoms and wander all over the solid. The continuous
interchange of valence electrons between atoms holds the solid together. This is
the predominant type of bonding in silicon and germanium, and is called the
valence bonding. In solids, atoms are usually arranged in a regular way to
achieve a dense packing and thereby form a crystal. The arrangement has very
2
desirable characteristics, i.e. the transport of holes and free electrons is very
smooth in these structures. When the arrangement is not crystalline
complication arise. Here we will be concerned only with the properties of
perfect crystals. Silicon and germanium (and carbon) crystallize with an
identical crystal structure, the called diamond structure. Such a structure is
shown in fig. 2
The arrangement of atoms in the illustration form a Unit Cell, and the crystal
is made up of adjacent unit cells. Fig. 3 shows a potential diagram of an array of
atoms.
An actual crystal is of course there dimensional. The most important
difference between the potential plot of an isolated atom and one dimensional
array is the splitting of energy levels. In fact, bringing N atoms together we find
'N' times as many levels throughout the crystal. The spreading of energy level
depends on the degree of interaction, therefore, the inner orbits split into levels
combined in a narrow energy than the outer ones.
As a result of the interaction between the tremendous number of atoms in
crystal (1022 per cm3), the energy level found in isolated atoms will be split and
form bands of allowed energies which contain almost continuum of levels.
Accordingly, electrons are located in energy bands in crystalline solid. The band
which contains the valence electrons is called the valence band. The unoccupied
energy levels also split up and form another band called the conduction band.
The interaction between the unused shells is very large and they spread widely.
Therefore, while there is a band gap, Eg (or forbidden region) between the
valence and conduction bands, splitting of higher orbit is so wide that they
usually overlap.
The bands below the energy gap Eg are completely filled at absolute zero
temperature and the conduction band is empty. This is a very important point
and has direct consequences on the conduction properties, as we shall see soon.
The fundamental theory is that current conduction is not possible in empty and
filled bands. The reasons about the empty band is obvious since current is not
possible without carriers. The reason about the filled band is as follows: though
the valence electrons move about the crystal but they cannot be accelerated
3
because the acceleration means gain of energy and there are no higher energy
levels available to which they could rise.
We can now readily see that the crystal band structure shown in Fig. 3 does
not allow current conduction at T=0. If we increase the temperature, however,
thermal agitation increases and some valence electron will gain energy greater
than Eg and jump into the conduction band. The electron in the conduction band
is called a free electron, and its former place in the valence band is called a hole.
Electrons in conduction band can gain energy when a field is applied, because
there are many higher energy states available. The fact that electrons left the
valence band leaves some empty energy levels, this allows conduction in the
valence band as well. Electrons can now gain energy in the valence band also,
and we observe a motion of holes in the direction of the field. Because of this
we begin to speak of a hole as current carrying particles.
According to the proceeding theory, an insulator must have a large bandgap,
so that at room temperature the conduction band is practically empty and the
valence band is practically filled and semiconductors must have a narrower
band gaps so that appreciable number of carriers are present in the valence and
conduction bands at room temperature.
In metals, however, the valence and conduction bands overlap and
application of an electric field can, therefore, accelerate a great sea of electrons.
The non-existence of a band gap makes conduction in metal almost independent
of temperature, as compared to semiconductors. Fig. 4 summarizes the above
points.
The fact that electrons can be found in energy bands within a crystal and
other conclusions mentioned so far can be shown by quantum mechanical
calculations also which we shall not carry out here, but will use the results for
quantitative analysis.
4
5
EXPERIMENTAL CONSIDERATIONS
1. High resistance or rectification appears fairly often in electrical contacts to
Semiconductors and in fact is one of the major problem.
2. In single crystal material the resistivity may vary smoothly from point to
Point. In fact this is generally the case. The question is the amount of this
Variation rather than any question of its presence. Often, however, it is
Conventionally stated that the resistivity is constant within some percentage
and when the variation does in fact fall within this tolerance, it is ignored.
3. Soldered probe contacts may disturb the current flow shorting out part of the
Sample and add to the ambiguity in the measurement of the probe spacing.
Soldering directly to the body of the sample can affect the sample properties
by heating effect and by contamination unless care is taken. These problems
can be avoided by using pressure contacts. The principal draw backs of this
kind of contacts are that they may be noisy.
4. The current through the sample should not be large enough to cause heating.
A further precaution is necessary to prevent 'injecting effect' from affecting
the measured value of r Even good contacts, to germanium, for example, may
inject. This is minimized by keeping the voltage drop at the contacts low. If
the surface near the current contacts is rough (lapped surface) and the electric
flow in the crystal is low, these injected carriers will recombine before
reaching the measuring probes.
Since r is independent of current, it is possible to determine whether or
not any of these effects are interfering with the measuring of r at several values
of I. It should be kept in mind that these points of experimental technique affect
essentially all the measurements and not the resistivity measurements only.
FOUR PROBE METHOD
Many conventional methods for measuring resistivity are unsatisfactory
for semiconductors because metal-semiconductor contacts are usually rectifying
in nature. Also there is generally minority carrier injection by one of the current
carrying contacts. An excess concentration of minority carriers will affect the
potential of other contacts and modulate the resistance of the material.
6
7
The method described here overcomes the difficulties mentioned above and
also offers several other advantages. It permits measurements of resistivity in
samples having a wide variety of shapes, including the resistivity of small volumes
within bigger pieces of semiconductor. In this manner the resistivity of both sides
of p-n junction can be determined with good accuracy before the material is cut
into bars for making devices. This method of measurement is also applicable to
silicon and other semiconductor materials.
The basic model for all these measurements is indicated in Fig. 5. Four
sharp probes are placed on a flat surface of the material to be measured, current is
passed through the two outer electrodes, and the floating potential is measured
across the inner pair. If the flat surface on which the probes rest is adequately large
and the crystal is big the semiconductor may be considered to be a semi-infinite
volume. To prevent minority carrier injection and make good contacts, the surface
on which the probes rest, maybe mechanically lapped.
The experimental circuit used for measurement is illustrated schematically
in Fig. 6. A nominal value of probe spacing which has been found satisfactory is
an equal distance of 2.0 mm between adjacent probes. This permits measurements
with reasonable current of n-type or p-type semiconductor from 0.001 to 50 ohm.
cm.
In order to use this four probe method in semiconductor crystals or slides it
is necessary to assume that:
1. The resistivity of the material is uniform in the area of measurement.
2. If there is minority carrier injection into the semiconductor by the current –
carrying electrodes most of the carriers recombine near the electrodes so that
their effect on the conductivity is negligible. (This means that the
measurements should be made on surface which have a high recombination
rate, such as mechanical lapped surfaces).
3. The surface on which the probes rest is flat with no surface leakage.
4. The four probes used for resistivity measurements contact the surface at
points that lie in a straight line.
5. The diameter of the contact between the metallic probes and the
semiconductor should be small compared to the distance between probes.
6. The boundary between the current-carrying electrodes and the bulk material
is hemispherical and small in diameter.
7. The surfaces of the semiconductor crystal may be either conducting or
Non-conducting.
(a) A conducting boundary is one on which a material of much lower
resistivity than semiconductor (such as copper) has been plated.
(b) A non-conducting boundary is produced when the surface of the
crystal is in contact with an insulator.
8
How to operate
1. Connect plugs of Ge. Crystal(Four probe setup) with constant current power
supply sockets. big plug in big sockets, small in small.
2. Switch on the AC mains of constant current supply LED will glow. Adjust the
current to at desired value (say 2 mA or set 175 m.Volt approximately)
Note the corresponding mV reading in the milli 77voltmeter.
3. Place the four probe arrangement in the oven and insert thermometer in the
given hole at the top.
4. Plug oven in AC mains. Switch ON the supply by rotating HEAT
CONTROL switch in clock wise direction. LED will indicates its ON
position, For continues heat put heat control knob at the end position mark
ON.
5. let the oven heat note the reading in milli voltmeter and in thermometer.
9
OBSERVATION TABLE:
CURRENT (I)= _____________________mA(CONSTANT)
�
Sr. Temperature Voltage Temperature Resistivity(ρ)=0.231x
� x10-3 ��� �
no. (T)ºC (V) mV (T) K Ohm.cm �
GRAPH:
Calculation:-
Eg = 0.397 X Slope
= __________ eV.
Result:-
The energy band gap of given semi conductor is_______________eV.
10
11
