University of Technology - Iraq

Department of Electrical Engineering

Electrical Engineering Division / First Year
Physics of Electronics I
2022-2023
Assistant Professor:
Sabah A. Al-Karagolee

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University of Technology 2022 – 2023 First Year, Lecture Six
Electrical Engineering Department Physics of Electronics I Assist. Prof. Sabah A. Al-Karagolee

The Chemical Bonds

Chemical compounds are formed by the joining of two or more atoms. A stable
compound when the total energy of the combination has lower energy than the separated
atoms. The bound state implies a net attractive force between the atoms …a chemical bond.
The two extreme cases of chemical bonds are: covalent bond is bond in which one or more
pairs of electrons are shared by two atoms. While ionic bond is bond in which one or more
electrons from one atom are removed and attached to another atom, resulting in positive and
negative ions which attract each other. Other types of bonds include metallic bonds and
hydrogen bonding.

1. Ionic Bonds

In chemical bonds, atoms can either transfer or share their valence electrons. In the
extreme case where one or more atoms lose electrons and other atoms gain them in order to
produce a noble gas electron configuration, the bond is called an ionic bond. Typical of ionic
bonds are those in the alkali halides such as sodium chloride, NaCl as shown in Fig. (1).

Figure (1): Ionic bonding

2. Covalent Bonds
Covalent chemical bonds involve the sharing of a pair of valence electrons by two atoms,
in contrast to the transfer of electrons in ionic bonds. Such bonds lead to stable molecules if
they share electrons in such a way as to create a noble gas configuration for each atom.
Hydrogen gas forms the simplest covalent bond in the diatomic hydrogen molecule as shown
in Fig. (2).

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University of Technology 2022 – 2023 First Year, Lecture Six
Electrical Engineering Department Physics of Electronics I Assist. Prof. Sabah A. Al-Karagolee

F
i
g
.
Figure (2): Covalent bonding

3. Metallic Bonds
The properties of metals suggest that their atoms possess strong bonds, yet of conduction
of heat and electricity suggest that electrons can move freely in all directions in a metal. The
general observations give rise to a picture of positive ions in a sea of electrons to describe
metallic bonding.

Energy Bands in Solids

The electrons of a single atom revolve around the nucleus in certain orbits, each orbit has a
specific constant energy level and each level consists of several secondary levels while in
solids, which consist of a large number of close atoms, when these atoms unite to form the
crystal any electron does not affected by the charges in its atom only but by the nuclei and
the electrons in all other atoms forming the crystal too; therefore, the energy levels of the
outer electrons change as a result of the interaction between atoms and instead of the
specified energy levels of the single atom, the crystal contains a band of large number of
very close energy levels that seems to be continuous, this band is called the valence band
(V.B.). The electrons in the valence band are restricted to the atom and do not participate in
the electrical conduction. When an electron in the valence band gains enough energy so that
it can be separated from the atom, it jumps to the next band which is the conduction band
(C.B.). The electrons in the conduction band participate in the electrical conduction.
Between the valence band and the conduction band there is a forbidden region that the
electron can not exist in, this region is called the energy gap (E.g.) as shown in Fig. (3). The
materials are classified depending on the amount of the energy gap into three types:
conductors, insulators and semiconductors.

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University of Technology 2022 – 2023 First Year, Lecture Six
Electrical Engineering Department Physics of Electronics I Assist. Prof. Sabah A. Al-Karagolee

Figure (3): Energy bands.

Insulators: The energy band structure at the normal lattice spacing is indicated
schematically in Fig. (4a). For a diamond (carbon) crystal the region containing no quantum
states is several electron volts high (E.g. ≈ 6ev). The energy which can be supplied to an
electron from an applied is too small to carry the particle from the filling into the cant band.
Since the electron cannot acquire sufficient applied energy.

Semiconductor: The forbidden gap is small ≈ 1ev (Ge, germanium and Si, silicon) at 00K.
Energy cannot be acquired from an applied field, so the valence band remains to fill, and the
conduction band is empty, and it is an insulator at low temperature. At the temperature
increase, some of these valence electrons obtain thermal energy greater than E g, and the
electrons move into the conduction band. These are free electrons that can move under the
effect of a small applied field, and result in a current. The insulator has now become slightly
conducting, it is a semiconductor, which has free electrons in a conduction band and a holes
in a valence band as shown in Fig. (4b).

Conductor: A solid which contains a partially filled band structure is called a metal. Under
the influence of an applied electric field, the electrons may acquire additional energy and
move to higher states. Since these mobile electrons constitute a current, this substance is a
conductor and the partly filled region is the conduction band. One example of the band
structure of a metal is given in Fig. (4c), which shows overlapping valence and conduction
bands.

Figure (4): Energy diagrams for the three types of materials.

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University of Technology 2022 – 2023 First Year, Lecture Six
Electrical Engineering Department Physics of Electronics I Assist. Prof. Sabah A. Al-Karagolee

Mobility and Conductivity

Electrical mobility (µ) is the ability of charged particles to move through a medium in
response to an electric field that is pulling them. The separation of ions according to their
mobility in the gas phase is called ion mobility spectrometry, in the liquid phase it is called
electrophoresis. In solid-state physics, electron mobility characterizes how quickly an
electron can move through a metal or semiconductor when pulled by an electric field. There
is an analogous quantity for holes, called hole mobility. The term carrier mobility refers in
general to both electron and hole mobility.
When an electric field (E) is applied across a piece of material, the electrons respond by
moving with an average velocity called the drift velocity (𝑣d ). Then the electron mobility μ
is defined as:
𝑣
µ = d , in m2v-1s-1
E
Electron mobility is almost always specified in units of cm2/(V⋅s). This is different from
the SI unit of mobility, m2/(V⋅s). They are related by 1m2/(V⋅s) = 104cm2/(V⋅s).
eτE 𝐞𝛕
vd = ⟹ µ=
m 𝐦
Where:
vd : The drift velocity in m/s,
e: The electron charge in c,
τ: The relaxation time in s,
E: The electric field intensity in v/m.

In physics, a drift velocity is the average velocity attained by charged particles, such as
electrons, in a material due to an electric field. In general, an electron in a conductor will
propagate randomly at the Fermi velocity, resulting in an average velocity of zero.
When an electrical potential (V) is applied across a piece of material, a current of magnitude
(I) flows, see Fig. (5). The current is proportional to V, and can be described by Ohm's law:
I = V/R , R is the electrical resistance [ohms, Ω, V/A] and it is defined as:
L
R = ρ , and 𝜌 is resistivity in Ω.m.
A

Figure (5): Piece metal connected to a voltage source.

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University of Technology 2022 – 2023 First Year, Lecture Six
Electrical Engineering Department Physics of Electronics I Assist. Prof. Sabah A. Al-Karagolee

Electrical resistivity and its inverse, electrical conductivity, is a fundamental property of a

material that quantifies how strongly it resists or conducts electric current. A low resistivity
indicates a material that readily allows electric current. Resistivity is commonly represented
by the Greek letter ρ (rho). The SI unit of electrical resistivity is the ohm-meter (Ω⋅m).
I 1 V 𝐉
= ⇒ J = δE ⇒ 𝛅 =
A ρ L 𝐄
eneτ
J = envd ⇒ δ = ⇒ 𝛅 = 𝐞𝐧µ
m
Where:
J: The current density (A/m2) through the cross section of the metal.
δ: The conductivity in Ω-1m-1.
n: The number of free electrons per unit volume in electron/ m3.
This equation shows that the conductivity depends on:
 The number of charges per unit volume.
 Free electrons density.
 Mobility of charges.

Example 1: A silicon crystal having a cross section area of 0.001cm2 and a length of 10-3cm
is connected at its ends with a 10V battery at temperature 3000K when the current is 100mA.
Find the resistivity and the conductivity?
Solution:
V A 10 0.001×10−4 1
ρ= × = × = 0.1 Ωm, 𝛿 = 10 Ω-1m-1.
I L 100×10−3 10−3 ×10−2 ρ

Effects of Temperature and Doping on Mobility

In lattice scattering, a carrier moving through the lattice encounters atoms which are
positions due to thermal vibration. At low temperatures impurity scattering becomes the
dominant mechanism. (lattice scattering is less important). A slowly moving carrier is likely
to be scattered move strongly by an interaction with a charged greater momentum as shown
in Fig. (6).

Figure (6): Approximate temperature dependence of mobility.

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University of Technology 2022 – 2023 First Year, Lecture Six
Electrical Engineering Department Physics of Electronics I Assist. Prof. Sabah A. Al-Karagolee

When the temperature of a metal increases, thermal energy causes the atoms to vibrate, Fig.
(7). At any instant, the atom may not be in its equilibrium position, and it, therefore, interacts
with and scatters electrons. The mean free path decreases, the mobility of electrons is
reduced, and the resistivity increases.

Figure (7): Movement of an electron through (a) a perfect crystal, (b) a crystal heated to a
high temperature, and (c) a crystal containing atomic level defects. Scattering of the
electrons reduces mobility and conductivity.

The change in resistivity of pure metal as a function of temperature, thus,

ρth = ρRT (1 + α∆T)

where ρth the resistivity at any temperature T, ρRT the resistivity at room temperature (i.e.,
25°C), ΔT = (T–TRT)is the difference between the temperature of interest and room
temperature, and α is the temperature resistivity coefficient.

Fermi-Dirac Level
The Fermi function f(E) gives the probability that a given available electron energy state
will be occupied at a given temperature. At room temperature, the thermal energy allows a
small number of electrons to move from the valence band to the conduction band in the
semiconductor. The probability of filling the band by electrons depend on temperature is
given by an equation called the Fermi-Dirac function.
1
f(E) = E−E
F)
(
1+e KT
Where:
f(E): The probability of finding the state E by electrons.
EF : Energy of the Fermi level.
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University of Technology 2022 – 2023 First Year, Lecture Six
Electrical Engineering Department Physics of Electronics I Assist. Prof. Sabah A. Al-Karagolee

K: Boltzmann constant = 8.62×10-5ev/ok =1.38×10-23J/ok.

T: Absolute temperature in Kelvin.
At absolute zero of temperature 0 ok, all electron states will be filled to an energy level EF. At
higher temperatures, some electrons may be thermally excited into levels above EF. If E=EF,
then the probability is 0.5 regardless of temperature T as shown in Fig. (8).

Figure (8): The Fermi-Dirac distribution function.

Example 2: What is the probability of finding electrons when the Fermi energy level equals
the energy level.
Solution:
1 1
f(E) = E−EF = = 0.5%.
( ) 1+e0
1+e KT

Example 3: Prove the probability of finding electrons equal to zero, if E > EF at 0 ok

temperature.

Solution:
1 1
f(E) = E−EF = = 0%.
( ) 1+∞
1+e KT

Exercises
1. A specimen of silicon is 0.2mm long, has across sectional area of 0.2mmx0.2mm and
mobility is 1300 cm2/v.s. When a one volt is applied, a current produced of 8mA, calculate
the concentration of free electrons.

2. A metal object with a length is 60 cm, area is 2 m2, resistance is 5 kΩ and the number of
electrons is 4×1020 m-3. If the value of the applied voltage is 4 V, what is the drift velocity.

3. If E < EF and T=0 ok, prove the probability of finding electrons equal 100%.
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