ELECTRONIC DESIGN

Semiconductor Lab

Hall Effect and Conductivity

Supervisor
Prof.Håkan Pettersson

Christina Ashok
Raval Divya Kanubhai
Pansuriya Trushar Ratibhai
Aim:

1. Analysis of extrinsic Semiconductor crystal and identifying the type of dopant as acceptor
or donor atom.

2. Studying the Hall Effect on the crystal at different temperature and determination of the
band gap of Germanium crystal.

Apparatus:

1. Magnetic coil system

2. DC Power supply

3. Germanium sample carrier board

4. Tripod Support

5. Connecting wires and probes

Theory:

Extrinsic semiconductors

An extrinsic semiconductor is a semiconductor doped by a specific impurity which is able to

In a p-type semiconductor doping is done with trivalent atoms. Tri-valent atoms are those which
have three valence electrons in their valence shell. Some examples of trivalent atoms are
Aluminum, boron etc. So, the three valence electrons of the doped impure atoms will form the
covalent bonds between silicon atoms.
 Fig 1: Semiconductor

But silicon atoms have four electrons in its valence shell. So, one covalent bond will be improper.
So, one more electron is needed for the proper covalent bonding. This need of one electron is
fulfilled from any of the bond between two silicon atoms. So, the bond between the silicon and
indium atom will be completed. After bond formation the indium will get ionized. As we know
that ions are negatively charged. So, indium will also get negative charge. A hole was created
when the electron come from silicon-silicon bond to complete the bond between indium and
silicon. Now, an electron will move from any one of the covalent bond to fill the empty hole. This
will result in a new holes formation. So, in p-type semiconductor the holes movement results in
the formation of the current. Holes are positively charged. Hence these conductors are known as
p-type semiconductors or acceptor type semiconductors.

Part 1: Hall Effect

The production of a potential difference across an electrical conductor when a magnetic field is
applied in a direction perpendicular to that of the flow of current.
If an electric current flows through a conductor in a magnetic field, the magnetic field exerts a
transverse force on the moving charge carriers which tends to push them to one side of the
conductor.

Figure 2: Hall Effect

This is the most evident in a thin flat conductor as illustrated. A buildup of charge at the sides of
the conductors will balance this magnetic influence, producing a measurable voltage between the
two sides of the conductor. The presence of this measurable transverse voltage is called the hall
effect after E.H Hall who discovered it in 1879.

In case of the p type semiconductor follows similar procedures. Unlike the n type semiconductors,
the majority charge carriers are holes and flow along same direction as that of conventional current.
Due to the perpendicular Magnetisation fields acting on the semiconductor, the holes and electrons
are aligned along the top and bottom of the crystal resulting in positive electric potential orthogonal
to the applied magnetic field and current direction.

In a steady state condition, the magnetic force is balanced by the electric force. Mathematically
we can express it as

𝑒𝐸 = 𝑒v𝐵 (b)
Where ‘e’ is the electric charge, ‘E’ the Hall electric filed developed, ‘B’ the applied magnetic
field and ‘v’ is drift velocity of the charge carriers.

And the current ‘I’ can be expressed as,

I = neAv (c)

Where ‘n’ is the number of density of electrons in the conductor of length ‘l’, breadth ‘w’ and
thickness ‘t’. Using a and b the Hall voltage can be written as

𝐼𝐵
𝑉𝐻 = 𝐸𝑤 = v𝐵𝑤 =
𝑛𝑒𝑡
𝐼𝐵
𝑉𝐻 = 𝑅𝐻 𝑡
(d)

By rearranging (d)

𝑉𝐻 ∗𝑡
𝑅𝐻 = 𝐼∗𝐵
(e)

Where 𝑅𝐻 is called Hall coefficient

1
𝑅𝐻 = − (f)
𝑛𝑒

Procedure:

1. Connect the circuits directly. And place the germanium crystal perpendicular to the magnetic
field generated by two coils. Be careful not to damage the crystal when the circuit board is
inserted into the gap of the iron core of the magnet.

2. Power supply is turned on. Then, we measured the Hall voltage to determine the majority
carrier type. We measured the Hall voltage is minus, so that we can conclude that the sample
is p-type.

3. Input voltage should be adjusted to make a constant current of 30mA. The Hall voltage is
measured perpendicular to the sample for different currents though the magnet:

4. By varying the magnetization current at small steps of 0.1 A, the different values of Hall voltage
is obtained. On plotting graph of different Hall voltages against the corresponding magnetization
 field a straight line with positive slope is obtained. The slope of the straight line corresponds to the
Hall constant. The doping level p (dopant atom concentration per unit volume in the crystal) is
1
determined using RH=𝑞𝑝.

Tabulation:

Graph

Magnetic field B (mT) Hall voltage VH (mV)

0 0.055

20 5.341

40 10.643

60 15.179

80 21.645

100 26.795
120 31.547

140 36.575

160 41.768

180 47.172

200 51.98

220 56.63

240 63.35

260 68.12

280 72.32

300 76.16
 Hall effect
100.

80.

60.
VH in mV

40.

20.

0.
0 75 150 225 300 375
Magnetic field B in mT

Calculation:
RH*I/d=S

Slope=(Y2-Y1)/(X2-X1)

Slope =(59.1-29.91)/ (228-114);

I=30mA; d=1mm

RH=0.0085 m3/AS

p=1/ (RH*q)=0.704 x1021m(-3)

where,
RH= Hall coefficient
I= current
D=thickness
Part 2: Determining the Band gap of Ge
The proportionality factor σ is called electric conductivity. Since this quantity strongly depends
on the material, it is common to classify materials with regard to their conductivity.
Semiconductors are solids that do not conduct electric currents at low temperatures, but show a
measurable conductivity at higher temperatures. The reason for this temperature dependence is the
specific band structure of the electronic energy levels of a semiconductor.

J = Jn + Jp = σn*E + σp*E
The total current density J is equal to the sum of the electron and hole current densities. The
conductivity increases as the number of electrons and holes increases

Here, J is the current density (A/cm2 )

E is the applied electric field (V/cm) and

σ is the conductivity (1/(Ohm-cm)).

Following the formula analysis this data to extract the bandgap energy for this semiconductor.

V is the measured voltage over the Ge crystal. This assumes that the conductivity is based on an
intrinsic semiconductor.

Taking the natural log of each side, then get:

Using Excel on the computer make a plot of the data. The plot ln (V) on the y-axis versus and
(1/T) on the x-axis, then we got the line with the slope equal to (Eg /2 kT).

The Boltzmann's constant k = 8.617 x 10-5 eV/K.

T V(mV) T(K) 1/T(K^-1) ln V(mV)

135 153 408 0.0024509804 5.03043792

130 173 403 0.0024813896 5.15329159

125 194 398 0.0025125628 5.26785815

120 208 393 0.0025445293 5.33753808

115 240 388 0.0025773196 5.48063892

110 272 383 0.0026109661 5.60580206

105 303 378 0.0026455026 5.71373280

100 339 373 0.0026809651 5.8260001

95 362 368 0.0027173913 5.891644212

90 432 363 0.0027548209 6.06842558

85 484 358 0.0027932961 6.18208490

80 544 353 0.0028328612 6.29894924

75 601 348 0.0028735632 6.39859493

70 666 343 0.0029154519 6.50128967

65 726 338 0.0029585799 6.58755001

60 780 333 0.0030030030 6.65929392

55 822 328 0.0030487805 6.71174039

50 854 323 0.0030959752 6.74993119

45 871 318 0.0031446541 6.76964197

30 879 313 0.0031948882 6.77878489

35 876 308 0.0032467532 6.77536609

30 865 303 0.0033003300 6.76272950

25 848 298 0.0033557047 6.74288063

Graph: The slope is -3140.304 and calculated Eg =0.5412

Calculation:

S= -Eg/2KT

Eg= bandgap energy

K= Boltzman constant

T= temperature

Slope = -3140.304

Hence from the above Formula, Eg=0.5412

Conclusion:

The sample investigated is p-type Germanium semiconductor and the band gap of the crystal is
0.5412eV.