Friday, March 20, 2015

physical chemistry - why some elements of same group cannot be used for doping semiconductors?


15th group elements like As, Sb, P can be used for doping whereas N and Bi cannot be used for doping even though they too belong belong to 15th group. Why ?



Answer



For good doping you need two things: (1) get enough dopant in to be useful in changing carrier concentrations, and (2) having an energy level close to a band edge to generate electrons (holes) in the band, rather than making a mid-level recombination center. The below is assuming you are trying to dope Silicon. Data is generally from Sze's excellent 'Physics of Semiconductor Devices' text.


Bismuth certainly has a donor level not much lower than As, satisfying (2). However, the solid solubility of Bi is roughly 3 orders of magnitude less than As, peaking at below $10^{18}/cm^3$. This limits the utility of Bi in current device technology - you just can't get enough in.


Nitrogen has very low solubility in silicon. I cannot find quickly any info on energy levels in the gap, but oxygen has several levels, all pretty much near gap. I'd say nitrogen loses out on both (1) and (2).


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