pn junction

A pn junction. The circuit symbol is shown: the triangle corresponds to the p side.

See also: pn diode and Diode Semiconductor diodes

A pn junction is a boundary or interface between two
types of semiconductor material, p-type and n-type, inside a single crystal of semiconductor. It is created by
doping, for example by ion implantation, diusion of
dopants, or by epitaxy (growing a layer of crystal doped
with one type of dopant on top of a layer of crystal doped
with another type of dopant). If two separate pieces of Image silicon atoms (Si) enlarged about 45,000,000x.
material were used, this would introduce a grain boundary between the semiconductors that would severely inforward bias is in the direction of easy current ow, and
hibit its utility by scattering the electrons and holes.
reverse bias is in the direction of little or no current ow.
pn junctions are elementary building blocks of
most semiconductor electronic devices such as diodes,
transistors, solar cells, LEDs, and integrated circuits; they
are the active sites where the electronic action of the 1.1 Equilibrium (zero bias)
device takes place. For example, a common type of
transistor, the bipolar junction transistor, consists of two In a pn junction, without an external applied voltage,
an equilibrium condition is reached in which a potential
pn junctions in series, in the form npn or pnp.
dierence is formed across the junction. This potential
The discovery of the pn junction is usually attributed to
dierence is called built-in potential Vbi .
[1]
American physicist Russell Ohl of Bell Laboratories.
After joining p-type and n-type semiconductors, elecA Schottky junction is a special case of a pn junction,
trons from the n region near the pn interface tend to difwhere metal serves the role of the p-type semiconductor.
fuse into the p region. As electrons diuse, they leave
positively charged ions (donors) in the n region. Likewise, holes from the p-type region near the pn interface
begin to diuse into the n-type region, leaving xed ions
1 Properties
(acceptors) with negative charge. The regions nearby the
The pn junction possesses some interesting properties pn interfaces lose their neutrality and become charged,
that have useful applications in modern electronics. A p- forming the space charge region or depletion layer (see
doped semiconductor is relatively conductive. The same gure A).
is true of an n-doped semiconductor, but the junction between them can become depleted of charge carriers, and
hence non-conductive, depending on the relative voltages
of the two semiconductor regions. By manipulating this
non-conductive layer, pn junctions are commonly used
as diodes: circuit elements that allow a ow of electricity
in one direction but not in the other (opposite) direction.
Bias is the application of a voltage across a pn junction;

The electric eld created by the space charge region opposes the diusion process for both electrons and holes.
There are two concurrent phenomena: the diusion process that tends to generate more space charge, and the
electric eld generated by the space charge that tends to
counteract the diusion. The carrier concentration prole at equilibrium is shown in gure A with blue and red
lines. Also shown are the two counterbalancing phenom1

1 PROPERTIES

1.2 Forward bias

In forward bias, the p-type is connected with the positive
terminal and the n-type is connected with the negative
terminal.

Figure A. A pn junction in thermal equilibrium with zero-bias

voltage applied. Electron and hole concentration are reported
with blue and red lines, respectively. Gray regions are chargeneutral. Light-red zone is positively charged. Light-blue zone is
negatively charged. The electric eld is shown on the bottom,
the electrostatic force on electrons and holes and the direction in
which the diusion tends to move electrons and holes.

ena that establish equilibrium.

Figure B. A pn junction in thermal equilibrium with zero-bias

voltage applied. Under the junction, plots for the charge density,
the electric eld, and the voltage are reported.

The space charge region is a zone with a net charge provided by the xed ions (donors or acceptors) that have
been left uncovered by majority carrier diusion. When
equilibrium is reached, the charge density is approximated by the displayed step function. In fact, the region is
completely depleted of majority carriers (leaving a charge
density equal to the net doping level), and the edge between the space charge region and the neutral region is
quite sharp (see gure B, Q(x) graph). The space charge
region has the same magnitude of charge on both sides
of the pn interfaces, thus it extends farther on the less
doped side in this example (the n side in gures A and
B).

PN junction operation in forward-bias mode, showing reducing

depletion width. Both p and n junctions are doped at a 1e15/cm3
doping level, leading to built-in potential of ~0.59 V. Reducing
depletion width can be inferred from the shrinking charge prole,
as fewer dopants are exposed with increasing forward bias.

With a battery connected this way, the holes in the ptype region and the electrons in the n-type region are
pushed toward the junction. This reduces the width of
the depletion zone. The positive potential applied to the
p-type material repels the holes, while the negative potential applied to the n-type material repels the electrons. As
electrons and holes are pushed toward the junction, the
distance between them decreases. This lowers the barrier in potential. With increasing forward-bias voltage,
the depletion zone eventually becomes thin enough that
the zones electric eld cannot counteract charge carrier
motion across the pn junction, as a consequence reducing electrical resistance. The electrons that cross the pn
junction into the p-type material (or holes that cross into
the n-type material) will diuse in the near-neutral region. Therefore, the amount of minority diusion in the
near-neutral zones determines the amount of current that
may ow through the diode.
Only majority carriers (electrons in n-type material or
holes in p-type) can ow through a semiconductor for a
macroscopic length. With this in mind, consider the ow
of electrons across the junction. The forward bias causes
a force on the electrons pushing them from the N side
toward the P side. With forward bias, the depletion region is narrow enough that electrons can cross the junction and inject into the p-type material. However, they
do not continue to ow through the p-type material indenitely, because it is energetically favorable for them
to recombine with holes. The average length an electron
travels through the p-type material before recombining is
called the diusion length, and it is typically on the order
of micrometers.[2]
Although the electrons penetrate only a short distance into
the p-type material, the electric current continues uninterrupted, because holes (the majority carriers) begin to
ow in the opposite direction. The total current (the sum
of the electron and hole currents) is constant in space, be-

3
cause any variation would cause charge buildup over time
(this is Kirchhos current law). The ow of holes from
the p-type region into the n-type region is exactly analogous to the ow of electrons from N to P (electrons and
holes swap roles and the signs of all currents and voltages
are reversed).

n junction depletion zone breaks down and current begins to ow, usually by either the Zener or the avalanche
breakdown processes. Both of these breakdown processes are non-destructive and are reversible, as long as
the amount of current owing does not reach levels that
cause the semiconductor material to overheat and cause
Therefore, the macroscopic picture of the current ow thermal damage.
through the diode involves electrons owing through the This eect is used to ones advantage in Zener diode regn-type region toward the junction, holes owing through ulator circuits. Zener diodes have a certain low breakthe p-type region in the opposite direction toward the down voltage. A standard value for breakdown voltage is
junction, and the two species of carriers constantly re- for instance 5.6 V. This means that the voltage at the cathcombining in the vicinity of the junction. The electrons ode can never be more than 5.6 V higher than the voltage
and holes travel in opposite directions, but they also have at the anode, because the diode will break down and
opposite charges, so the overall current is in the same di- therefore conduct if the voltage gets any higher. This in
eect regulates the voltage over the diode.
rection on both sides of the diode, as required.
The Shockley diode equation models the forward-bias Another application of reverse biasing is Varicap diodes,
operational characteristics of a pn junction outside the where the width of the depletion zone (controlled with
avalanche (reverse-biased conducting) region.
the reverse bias voltage) changes the capacitance of the
diode.

1.3

Reverse bias

2 Governing equations
2.1 Size of depletion region
See also: Band bending

A silicon pn junction in reverse bias.

Connecting the p-type region to the negative terminal of

the battery and the n-type region to the positive terminal
corresponds to reverse bias. If a diode is reverse-biased,
the voltage at the cathode is comparatively higher than
the anode. Therefore, no current will ow until the diode
breaks down. The connections are illustrated in the diagram to the right.
Because the p-type material is now connected to the negative terminal of the power supply, the 'holes' in the ptype material are pulled away from the junction, causing
the width of the depletion zone to increase. Likewise, because the n-type region is connected to the positive terminal, the electrons will also be pulled away from the junction. Therefore, the depletion region widens, and does
so increasingly with increasing reverse-bias voltage. This
increases the voltage barrier causing a high resistance to
the ow of charge carriers, thus allowing minimal electric
current to cross the pn junction. The increase in resistance of the pn junction results in the junction behaving
as an insulator.

For a pn junction, letting CA (x) and CD (x) be the concentrations of acceptor and donor atoms respectively, and
letting N0 (x) and P0 (x) be the equilibrium concentrations of electrons and holes respectively, yields, by Poissons equation:
2

ddxV2 =

[(N0 P0 ) + (CD CA )]

where V is the electric potential, is the charge density,

is permittivity and q is the magnitude of the electron
charge. Letting dp be the width of the depletion region
within the p-side, and letting dn be the width of the depletion region within the n-side, it must be that
dp CA = dn CD
because the total charge on either side of the depletion
region must cancel out. Therefore, letting D and V
represent the entire depletion region and the potential difference across it,

V = D q [(N0 P0 ) + (CD CA )] dx dx
=

CA CD 2q
CA +CD (dp

+ dn )2

Where P0 = N0 = 0 , because we are in the depletion

region. And thus, letting d be the total width of the depletion region, we get

CA +CD
d = 2
q CA CD V

The strength of the depletion zone electric eld increases Where V can be written as V0 + Vext , where we
as the reverse-bias voltage increases. Once the electric have broken up the voltage dierence into the equilibeld intensity increases beyond a critical level, the p rium plus external components. The equilibrium poten-

EXTERNAL LINKS

tial results from diusion forces, and thus we can cal- the metal-semiconductor junctions do not act as diodes.
culate V0 by implementing the Einstein relation and These non-rectifying junctions behave as ohmic contacts
assuming the semiconductor is nondegenerate (i.e. the regardless of applied voltage polarity.
product P0 N0 is independent of the Fermi energy):
(
)
CA CD
V0 = kT
ln
q
P0 N0

5 See also

where T is the temperature of the semiconductor and k is

Boltzmann constant.[3]

2.2

Current across depletion region

The Shockley ideal diode equation characterizes the current across a pn junction as a function of external voltage
and ambient conditions (temperature, choice of semiconductor, etc.). To see how it can be derived, we must examine the various reasons for current. The convention
is that the forward (+) direction be pointed against the
diodes built-in potential gradient at equilibrium.
Forward Current ( JF )
Diusion Current: current due to local imbalances in carrier concentration n , via the equation JD qn

Alloy-junction transistor
Capacitancevoltage proling
Deep-level transient spectroscopy
Delocalized electron
Diode modelling
Field-eect transistor
npn transistor
pnp transistor
Semiconductor detector
Semiconductor device
Transistortransistor logic

Reverse Current ( JR )
Field Current
Generation Current

Summary

The forward-bias and the reverse-bias properties of the

pn junction imply that it can be used as a diode. A pn
junction diode allows electric charges to ow in one direction, but not in the opposite direction; negative charges
(electrons) can easily ow through the junction from n to
p but not from p to n, and the reverse is true for holes.
When the pn junction is forward-biased, electric charge
ows freely due to reduced resistance of the pn junction. When the pn junction is reverse-biased, however,
the junction barrier (and therefore resistance) becomes
greater and charge ow is minimal.

Non-rectifying junctions

In the above diagrams, contact between the metal wires

and the semiconductor material also creates metal
semiconductor junctions called Schottky diodes. In a
simplied ideal situation a semiconductor diode would
never function, since it would be composed of several
diodes connected back-to-front in series. But, in practice, surface impurities within the part of the semiconductor that touches the metal terminals will greatly reduce
the width of those depletion layers to such an extent that

6 References
[1] Riordan, Michael; Lillian Hoddeson (1988). Crystal re:
the invention of the transistor and the birth of the information age. USA: W. W. Norton & Company. pp. 8897.
ISBN 0-393-31851-6.
[2] Hook, J. R.; H. E. Hall (2001). Solid State Physics. John
Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0-471-92805-4.
[3] Luque, Antonio; Steven Hegedus (29 March 2011).
Handbook of Photovoltaic Science and Engineering. John
Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0-470-97612-8.

7 Further reading
Shockley, William (1949). The Theory of p-n
Junctions in Semiconductors and p-n Junction Transistors. Bell System Technical Journal 28 (3): 435
489.
doi:10.1002/j.1538-7305.1949.tb03645.x.
Retrieved 12 June 2013.

8 External links
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBtEckh3L9Q
Educational video on the P-N junction.
P-N Junction PowerGuru, August, 2012.
Olav Torheim, Elementary Physics of P-N Junctions,
2007.

5
PN Junction Properties Calculator
PN Junction Lab free to use on nanoHUB.org allows
simulation and study of a pn junction diode with
dierent doping and materials. Users can calculate
current-voltage (I-V) & capacitance-voltage (C-V)
outputs, as well.
Understanding the PN Junction Explains PN junction in a very easy to understand language.

9 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

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