What is Donor?
An impurity that supplies electrons to a semiconductor. For silicon, group V elements such as phosphorus (P) and arsenic (As) act as donors and make n-type semiconductors.
Field: Semiconductor physics
Donor in the explanations
The phosphorus donor level lies only about 0.045 eV below the conduction band, so even room-temperature thermal energy (about 0.026 eV) ionizes nearly all donors.
Where in the band gap is the donor level created by phospho…Its position is given by Ec − EF ≈ kT·ln(Nc/ND), so it moves about 60 mV (at room temperature) closer to the conduction band for every tenfold increase in donor concentration.
Where is the Fermi level located in an n-type semiconductor?Shallow as donor levels are, freeing an electron into the conduction band still takes a little thermal energy.
Why does the carrier density of n-type silicon drop sharply…
Questions that mention Donor (10)
- What is the approximate hole density in n-type silicon with a donor concentration of 1×10¹⁶ cm⁻³ (all donors ionized, intrinsic carrier density ni = 1×10¹⁰ cm⁻³)?
- Where in the band gap is the donor level created by phosphorus in silicon?
- Where is the Fermi level located in an n-type semiconductor?
- Why does the carrier density of n-type silicon drop sharply when it is cooled to cryogenic temperatures?
- Which value is closest to the atomic density of crystalline silicon?
- How many valence (outermost-shell) electrons does a silicon atom have?
- Which statement correctly describes the depletion layer of a PN junction in thermal equilibrium?
- When silicon is added to GaAs to make it n-type, which site does the silicon mainly occupy?
- Which correctly describes a typical method of manufacturing SOI wafers?
- Which is a known effect of adding a trace of nitrogen during CZ crystal growth (nitrogen doping)?
Related terms
Acceptor Intrinsic carrier density Band gap Fermi level Degenerate semiconductor Depletion layer GaAs (gallium arsenide) Annealing SOI wafer CMP