Question

Explain the formation of n- type of semiconductor from silicon.

Answer 1

An N-type semiconductor is formed when a small amount of pentavalent impurity is added to a pure germanium or silicon crystal. The addition of pentavalent impurity produces a large no. of free electrons in the host crystal.
To explain the formation of N-type semiconductor, let us introduce a pentavalent impurity atom into the lattice of pure silicon crystal. The pentavalent atom has 5 valance electrons, but only 4 form covalent bonds with the neighbouring atoms. The 5th electron finds no place in the covalent bonding so becomes free. Since an impurity atom provides one free electron, an enormous increase occurs in the no. of free electrons. The impure semiconductor so obtained is then called as N - type semiconductor where N represents negative charge on an electron. Thus the majority carrier in N-type semiconductor are free electrons. Holes are also present in the N-type semiconductor. These are thermally generated and since they are relatively few, they are called minority carrier.

The pentavalent impurity atom is called donor because each donates a free electron to the host crystal.