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A P-type semiconductor (P for Positive) is obtained by carrying out a process of doping, that is adding a certain type of atoms to the semiconductor in order to increase the number of free charge carrier
Charge carrier

In physics, a charge carrier denotes a free particle carrying an electric charge. Examples are electrons and ions.In ionic solutions, the charge carriers are the dissolved cations and anions....
s (in this case positive).

When the doping material is added, it takes away (accepts) weakly-bound outer electron
Electron

The electron is a subatomic particle that carries a negative electric charge. It has elementary particle and is believed to be a point particle....
s from the semiconductor atoms. This type of doping agent is also known as acceptor material and the semiconductor atoms that have lost an electron are known as holes
Electron hole

An electron hole is the conceptual and mathematical opposite of an electron, useful in the study of physics and chemistry. The concept describes the lack of an electron....
.

The purpose of P-type doping is to create an abundance of holes.






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A P-type semiconductor (P for Positive) is obtained by carrying out a process of doping, that is adding a certain type of atoms to the semiconductor in order to increase the number of free charge carrier
Charge carrier

In physics, a charge carrier denotes a free particle carrying an electric charge. Examples are electrons and ions.In ionic solutions, the charge carriers are the dissolved cations and anions....
s (in this case positive).

When the doping material is added, it takes away (accepts) weakly-bound outer electron
Electron

The electron is a subatomic particle that carries a negative electric charge. It has elementary particle and is believed to be a point particle....
s from the semiconductor atoms. This type of doping agent is also known as acceptor material and the semiconductor atoms that have lost an electron are known as holes
Electron hole

An electron hole is the conceptual and mathematical opposite of an electron, useful in the study of physics and chemistry. The concept describes the lack of an electron....
.

The purpose of P-type doping is to create an abundance of holes. In the case of silicon
Silicon

Silicon is the most common metalloid. It is a chemical element, which has the symbol Si and atomic number 14. The atomic mass is 28.0855....
, a trivalent atom (typically from group IIIA of the periodic table
Periodic table

The periodic table of the chemical elements is a table method of displaying the chemical elements. Although precursors to this table exist, its invention is generally credited to Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev in 1869....
, such as boron
Boron

Boron is a chemical element with atomic number 5 and the chemical symbol B. Boron is a trivalent metalloid element which occurs abundantly in the evaporite ores borax and ulexite....
 or aluminium
Aluminium

Aluminium or aluminum is a silvery white and ductile member of the boron group of chemical elements. It has the symbol Al; its atomic number is 13....
) is substituted into the crystal lattice. The result is that one electron is missing from one of the four covalent bond
Covalent bond

A covalent bond is a form of chemical bonding that is characterized by the sharing of pairs of electrons between atoms, or between atoms and other covalent bonds....
s normal for the silicon lattice. Thus the dopant atom can accept an electron from a neighboring atoms' covalent bond to complete the fourth bond. Such dopants are called acceptors. The dopant atom accepts an electron, causing the loss of half of one bond from the neighboring atom and resulting in the formation of a "hole". Each hole is associated with a nearby negative-charged dopant ion, and the semiconductor remains electrically neutral
Electric charge

Electric charge is a fundamental conserved property of some subatomic particles, which determines their electromagnetic interaction. Electrically charged matter is influenced by, and produces, electromagnetic fields....
 as a whole. However, once each hole has wandered away into the lattice, one proton in the atom at the hole's location will be "exposed" and no longer cancelled by an electron. For this reason a hole behaves as a quantity of positive charge. When a sufficiently large number of acceptor
Acceptor (semiconductors)

In semiconductors physics the term acceptor is used to generically indicate a Semiconductors#Dopants atom that added to a semiconductor can form p-type regions....
 atoms are added, the holes greatly outnumber the thermally-excited
Electron excitation

Electron excitation is the movement of an electron to a higher energy state. This can either be done by photoexcitation , where the original electron absorbs the photon and gains all the photon's energy or by electrical Excited state , where the original electron absorbs the energy of another, energetic electron....
 electrons. Thus, the holes are the majority carriers, while electrons are the minority carriers in P-type materials. Blue diamond
Diamond

In mineralogy, diamond is the Allotropes of carbon where the carbon atoms are arranged in an isometric-hexoctahedral crystal lattice. After graphite, diamond is the second most stable form of carbon....
s (Type IIb), which contain boron
Boron

Boron is a chemical element with atomic number 5 and the chemical symbol B. Boron is a trivalent metalloid element which occurs abundantly in the evaporite ores borax and ulexite....
 (B) impurities, are an example of a naturally occurring P-type semiconductor.

See also


  • Semiconductor
    Semiconductor

    A semiconductor is a material that has electrical conductivity between those of a Electrical conductor and an electrical insulation; it can vary over that wide range either permanently or dynamically....
  • Acceptor (semiconductors)
    Acceptor (semiconductors)

    In semiconductors physics the term acceptor is used to generically indicate a Semiconductors#Dopants atom that added to a semiconductor can form p-type regions....
  • N-type semiconductor
    N-type semiconductor

    An N-type semiconductor is obtained by carrying out a process of Doping , that is, by adding an impurity of Valence -five elements to a valence-four semiconductor in order to increase the number of free charge carriers ....
  • I-type semiconductor
  • Transistor
    Transistor

    In electronics, a transistor is a semiconductor device commonly used to Electronic amplifier or switch Electronics signals. A transistor is made of a solid piece of a semiconductor material, with at least three terminals for connection to an external circuit....
    • p-n-p transistor
    • n-p-n transistor