Direct and Indirect Band Gaps

Direct and indirect band gaps
In semiconductor physics, the band gap of a

semiconductor is always one of two types, a direct band
gap or an indirect band gap. The minimal-energy state
in the conduction band and the maximal-energy state
in the valence band are each characterized by a certain
crystal momentum (k-vector) in the Brillouin zone. If
the k-vectors are the same, it is called a direct gap.
If they are dierent, it is called an indirect gap. The
band gap is called direct if the momentum of electrons
and holes is the same in both the conduction band and
the valence band; an electron can directly emit a photon.
In an indirect gap, a photon cannot be emitted because
the electron must pass through an intermediate state and
transfer momentum to the crystal lattice.
Direct Band Gap
Energy
Conduction Band
Valence Band
Momentum
Examples of direct bandgap material includes some III-V

materials such as InAs, GaAs. Indirect bandgap materials
include Si, Ge. Some III-V materials are indirect bandgap
as well, for example AlSb.
Energy vs. crystal momentum for a semiconductor with a direct

band gap, showing that an electron can shift from the highestenergy state in the valence band (red) to the lowest-energy state
in the conduction band (green) without a change in crystal momentum. Depicted is a transition in which a photon excites an
electron from the valence band to the conduction band.
Indirect Band Gap
Energy
Conduction Band
Phonon assisted transition
Valence Band
Momentum
Energy vs. crystal momentum for a semiconductor with an indirect band gap, showing that an electron cannot shift from the
highest-energy state in the valence band (red) to the lowest-energy
state in the conduction band (green) without a change in momentum. Here, almost all of the energy comes from a photon (vertical
arrow), while almost all of the momentum comes from a phonon
(horizontal arrow).
Bulk band structure for Si, Ge, GaAs and InAs generated with
tight binding model. Note that Si and Ge are indirect band gap
with minima at X and L, while GaAs and InAs are direct band
gap materials.
and other particles are required to satisfy conservation of

energy and crystal momentum (i.e., conservation of total
k-vector). A photon with an energy near a semiconduc1 Implications for radiative recom- tor band gap has almost zero momentum. One important process is called radiative recombination, where an
bination
electron in the conduction band annihilates a hole in the
valence band, releasing the excess energy as a photon.
See also: Radiative recombination
This is possible in a direct band gap semiconductor if the
electron has a k-vector near the conduction band minima
Interactions among electrons, holes, phonons, photons, (the hole will share the same k-vector), but not possible
1
in an indirect band gap semiconductor, as photons cannot

carry crystal momentum, and thus conservation of crystal
momentum would be violated. For radiative recombination to occur in an indirect band gap material, the process
must also involve the absorption or emission of a phonon,
where the phonon momentum equals the dierence between the electron and hole momentum. (It can also, instead, involve a crystallographic defect, which performs
essentially the same role.) The involvement of the phonon
makes this process much less likely to occur in a given
span of time, which is why radiative recombination is far
slower in indirect band gap materials than direct band gap
ones. This is why light-emitting and laser diodes are almost always made of direct band gap materials, and not
indirect band gap ones like silicon.
IMPLICATIONS FOR LIGHT ABSORPTION
The absorption spectrum of an indirect band gap material

usually depends more on temperature than that of a direct material, because at low temperatures there are fewer
phonons, and therefore it is less likely that a photon and
phonon can be simultaneously absorbed to create an indirect transition. For example, silicon is opaque to visible
light at room temperature, but transparent to red light at
liquid helium temperatures, because red photons can only
be absorbed in an indirect transition.
2.1 Formulae for absorption
A common and simple method for determining whether

a band gap is direct or indirect uses absorption spectroscopy. By plotting certain powers of the absorption
The fact that radiative recombination is slow in indirect coecient against photon energy, one can normally tell
band gap materials also means that, under most circum- both what value the band gap has, and whether or not it
stances, radiative recombinations will be a small propor- is direct.
tion of total recombinations, with most recombinations
being non-radiative, taking place at point defects or at For a direct band gap, the absorption coecient is
grain boundaries. However, if the excited electrons are related to light frequency according to the following
[1][2]
prevented from reaching these recombination places, they formula:
have no choice but to eventually fall back into the valence
q 2 x2 (2m )3/2
A h Eg , with A = vc0 0 3rn
band by radiative recombination. This can be done by
creating a dislocation loop in the material. At the edge of
the loop, the planes above and beneath the dislocation where:
disk are pulled apart, creating a negative pressure, which
raises the energy of the conduction band substantially,
is the absorption coecient, a function of light
with the result that the electrons cannot pass this edge.
frequency
Provided that the area directly above the dislocation loop
is light frequency
is defect-free (no non-radiative recombination possible),
the electrons will fall back into the valence shell by radia h is Plancks constant ( h is the energy of a photon
tive recombination, thus emitting light. This is the princiwith frequency )
ple on which DELEDs (Dislocation Engineered LEDs)
are based.
is reduced Plancks constant ( = h/2 )
Eg is the band gap energy
Implications for light absorption
A is a certain frequency-independent constant, with

formula above
The exact reverse of radiative recombination is light absorption. For the same reason as above, light with a photon energy close to the band gap can penetrate much farther before being absorbed in an indirect band gap material than a direct band gap one (at least insofar as the light
absorption is due to exciting electrons across the band
gap).
mr = mh+me , where me and mh are the eective

e
h
masses of the electron and hole, respectively ( mr is
called a "reduced mass")
This fact is very important for photovoltaics (solar cells).

Silicon is the most common solar-cell material, despite
the fact that it is indirect-gap and therefore does not absorb light very well. Silicon solar cells are typically hundreds of microns thick; if it was much thinner, much
of the light (particularly in the infrared) would simply
pass through. On the other hand, thin-lm solar cells are
made of direct band gap materials (such as CdTe, CIGS
or CZTS), which absorb the light in a much thinner region, and consequently can be made with a very thin active layer (often less than 1 micron thick).
0 is the vacuum permittivity
m m
q is the elementary charge

n is the (real) index of refraction
xvc is a matrix element, with units of length and

typical value the same order of magnitude as the
lattice constant.
This formula is valid only for light with photon energy
larger, but not too much larger, than the band gap (more
specically, this formula assumes the bands are approximately parabolic), and ignores all other sources of absorption other than the band-to-band absorption in question,
3
as well as the electrical attraction between the newly created electron and hole (see exciton). It is also invalid in
the case that the direct transition is forbidden, or in the
case that many of the valence band states are empty or
conduction band states are full.[3]
On the other hand, for an indirect band gap, the formula
is:[3]
(h Eg + Ep )2
E
exp( kTp ) 1
(h Eg Ep )2
E
1 exp( kTp )
where:
Ep is the energy of the phonon that assists in the
transition
k is Boltzmanns constant
T is the thermodynamic temperature
(This formula involves the same approximations mentioned above.)
Therefore, if a plot of h versus 2 forms a straight line,
it can normally be inferred that there is a direct band gap,
measurable by extrapolating the straight line to the =
0 axis. On the other hand, if a plot of h versus 1/2
forms a straight line, it can normally be inferred that there
is an indirect band gap, measurable by extrapolating the
straight line to the = 0 axis (assuming Ep 0 ).
Other aspects
In some materials with an indirect gap, the value of the

gap is negative. The top of the valence band is higher
than the bottom of the conduction band in energy. Such
materials are known as semimetals.
References
[1] Optoelectronics, by E. Rosencher, 2002, equation (7.25).

[2] Pankove has the same equation, but with an apparently
dierent prefactor A . However, in the Pankove version,
the units / dimensional analysis appears not to work out.
[3] J.I. Pankove, Optical Processes in Semiconductors. Dover,
1971.
External links
B. Van Zeghbroecks Principles of Semiconductor
Devices at Electrical and Computer Engineering
Department of University of Colorado at Boulder
6 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES
Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses
6.1
Text
Direct and indirect band gaps Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_and_indirect_band_gaps?oldid=733148608 Contributors:

Keenan Pepper, Mbloore, Wtshymanski, Ankur Banerjee, Shaddack, TDogg310, Quarky2001, Sbyrnes321, Chris the speller, Hgrosser,
Nick Number, Fylwind, Lightmouse, Wdwd, Addbot, Yobot, FrescoBot, Gire 3pich2005, Widr, Heroszeros, AK456, Pengyulong7 and
Anonymous: 22
6.2
Images
File:Bulkbandstructure.gif Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/Bulkbandstructure.gif License: CC BY 3.0

Contributors: Bandstructure Lab on nanoHUB.org Link: http://nanohub.org/resources/8814 Original artist: Saumitra R Mehrotra & Gerhard Klimeck
File:Direct.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7a/Direct.svg License: CC-BY-SA-3.0 Contributors: Own
work Original artist: Profjohn
File:Indirect_Bandgap.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/ba/Indirect_Bandgap.svg License: PD Contributors: ?
Original artist: ?
6.3
Content license
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0

Direct and Indirect Band Gaps

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Direct and Indirect Band Gaps

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Direct and Indirect Band Gaps

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Direct and indirect band gaps

In semiconductor physics, the band gap of a

Direct Band Gap

Examples of direct bandgap material includes some III-V

Energy vs. crystal momentum for a semiconductor with a direct

Indirect Band Gap

Phonon assisted transition

and other particles are required to satisfy conservation of

in an indirect band gap semiconductor, as photons cannot

IMPLICATIONS FOR LIGHT ABSORPTION

The absorption spectrum of an indirect band gap material

2.1 Formulae for absorption

A common and simple method for determining whether

Implications for light absorption

A is a certain frequency-independent constant, with

mr = mh+me , where me and mh are the eective

This fact is very important for photovoltaics (solar cells).

0 is the vacuum permittivity

q is the elementary charge

xvc is a matrix element, with units of length and

In some materials with an indirect gap, the value of the

[1] Optoelectronics, by E. Rosencher, 2002, equation (7.25).

6 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

Direct and indirect band gaps Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_and_indirect_band_gaps?oldid=733148608 Contributors:

File:Bulkbandstructure.gif Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/Bulkbandstructure.gif License: CC BY 3.0

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0

You might also like