Donor levels

A gap level is called an acceptor level if tlie defect is neutral when tlie state is empty (no electron). It is called a donor level if tlie defect is neutral when tlie state is occupied (one electron). The foniier is often labelled (0 / -) and tlie latter (-t / 0), where tlie first (second) sign refers to tlie charge of tlie defect when no electron (one electron) is present. Double or triple acceptor and donor levels are similarly labelled. 

Figure C2.16.6. The energy states of a metastable and bistable muonium in Si are illustrated in a configuration diagram. It plots the defect energy as a function of a coordinate which combines position and all the relaxations and distortions of the crystal. The specific example, discussed in the text, illustrates acceptor and donor levels, metastability, bistability and negative- U [50] behaviour.

The donor level (-1- / 0) corresponds to the ionization energy essentially identical configurations. The ionization energy measured by pSR is very close to the donor level obtained for hydrogen by DLTS [30], 0.175 0.005 eV. 

The impurity atoms used to form the p—n junction form well-defined energy levels within the band gap. These levels are shallow in the sense that the donor levels He close to the conduction band (Fig. lb) and the acceptor levels are close to the valence band (Fig. Ic). The thermal energy at room temperature is large enough for most of the dopant atoms contributing to the impurity levels to become ionized. Thus, in the -type region, some electrons in the valence band have sufficient thermal energy to be excited into the acceptor level and leave mobile holes in the valence band. Similar excitation occurs for electrons from the donor to conduction bands of the n-ty e material. The electrons in the conduction band of the n-ty e semiconductor and the holes in the valence band of the -type semiconductor are called majority carriers. Likewise, holes in the -type, and electrons in the -type semiconductor are called minority carriers. 

Cadmium Sulfide Photoconductor. CdS photoconductive films are prepared by both evaporation of bulk CdS and settHng of fine CdS powder from aqueous or organic suspension foUowed by sintering (60,61). The evaporated CdS is deposited to a thickness from 100 to 600 nm on ceramic substates. The evaporated films are polycrystaUine and are heated to 250°C in oxygen at low pressure to increase photosensitivity. Copper or silver may be diffused into the films to lower the resistivity and reduce contact rectification and noise. The copper acceptor energy level is within 0.1 eV of the valence band edge. Sulfide vacancies produce donor levels and cadmium vacancies produce deep acceptor levels. 

The variations in D and D and the much larger value for In show the limitations of a simple hydrogen atom model. Other elements, particularly transition metals, tend to introduce several deep levels in the energy gap. For example, gold introduces a donor level 0.54 eV below D and an acceptor level 0.35 eV above D in siHcon. Because such impurities are effective aids to the recombination of electrons and holes, they limit carrier lifetime. 

Sihcon carbide can be doped using boron [7440-42-8] to provide acceptor levels within the band gap (0.3 eV above the valence band), thus making it a -type conductor, or nitrogen can be added to provide donor levels and n-ty e conduction (0.07 eV) below the conduction band. 

Therefore, there could exist rich defects in Ba3BP30i2, BaBPOs and Ba3BP07 powders. From the point of energy-band theory, these defects will create defect energy levels in the band gap. It can be suggested that the electrons and holes introduced by X-ray excitation in the host might be mobile and lead to transitions within the conduction band, acceptor levels, donor levels and valence band. Consequently, some X-ray-excited luminescence bands may come into being. 

In case of small density of adsorbed particles if contrasted to the density of charged BSS the adsorption of donors can be accompanied by non-monotonous kinetics change in 4s t) which is caused by fast ASS depletion with subsequent slow BSS recharging (see Fig. 1.10, curve J). The use of typical values of parameters in absorbate-adsorbent systems shows that depletion of donor levels is characterized by the times of the order of seconds whereas the relaxation of charge in BSS takes hours. 

Zinc oxide is a thoroughly studied typical semiconductor of n-type with the width of forbidden band of 3.2 eV, dielectric constant being 10. Centers responsible for the dope electric conductivity in ZnO are provided by interstitial Zn atoms as well as by oxygen vacancies whose total concentration vary within limits 10 - 10 cm. Electron mobility in monocrystals of ZnO at ambient temperature amounts to 200 cm -s". The depth of donor levels corresponding to interstitial Zn and oxygen vacancies under the bottom of conductivity band is several hundredth of electron volt [18]. 

If the initial reactions of coal are purely thermal, one might expect that the H-donor level will be of minor importance if times are kept short. In fact, all coals contain a certain portion of material that is extractable by pyridine. On heating coals to liquefaction temperatures, some additional material also becomes soluble in even non-donor solvents. Thus, there is a portion of all coals which can be solubilized with little dependence on the nature of the solvent. 

Fig. 4. Energy spectrum of a crystal with acceptor level A and donor level D representing a chemisorbed particle.

Most of the other metal-related deep levels in Si are also passivated by reaction with hydrogen (Pearton, 1985). Silver, for example, gives rise in general to a donor level at Ee + 0.54 eV and an acceptor level at Ec - 0.54 e V (Chen and Milnes, 1980 Milnes, 1973). These levels are very similar to those shown by Au, Co and Rh and raise the question of whether Au might actually be introduced into all of the reported samples or a contaminant, or whether as discussed by several authors there is a similar core to these impurity centers giving rise to similar electronic properties (Mesli et al., 1987 Lang et al., 1980). This problem has not been adequately decided at this time. It has been... 

Fig. 3. Capacitance transient spectra from Au-diffused p-type Si showing passivation of the Au donor level (Ev + 0.35eV) after exposure to a hydrogen plasma.

The case where hydrogen can combine with a simple donor center I to form a neutral IH complex is described by equations of just the same form as (8-10), but with I replaced by 1+ and eF - ej by eY - ef, with ej now representing the donor level. More complicated cases, e.g., those involving centers with more than two charge states, can be treated by similar reasoning. 

Unfortunately, no reliable estimate of cr is available for any hydrogen species. Since the hydrogen donor level seems to be somewhere near midgap, it is appropriate to recall the range covered by the cr values measured for various deep impurities in silicon (Milnes, 1973, Chapter 10), namely, cr 10-14 - 10 21 cm2. Such values would give r0 values in (22) of the order of microseconds to seconds at 200°C if eD = em. At room temperature, on the other hand, values as long as hours could occur if eD is well below em or o-+e is very small. The range of possibilities for other conceivable carrier emission processes (H°— H + h, H+— H° + h, etc.) is presumably similar. 

Fig. 2. Variation of the logarithms of the rate factors (23) and (24) for charge-state changes as the band potential, and hence the height of the hydrogen donor level eD is changed (a) relative to an equilibrium Fermi level eF for the carriers or (b) relative to an arbitrary level, when the electron and hole Fermi levels eFe and rFh, respectively, are made different by application of a reverse bias to a p-n junction.

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