Experimental evidence on the band structure of germanium and silicon

✍ Scribed by C. Kittel

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1954
• Weight: 249 KB
• Volume: 20
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0031-8914
• DOI: 10.1016/s0031-8914(54)80195-9

✦ Synopsis

This paper reviews the status of experiments bearing on the band structure of semiconductors, with particular reference to germanium and silicon. The situation in n-Ge is especially clear, as both cyclotron resonance and magnetoresistance experiments show that the energy surfaces at the bottom of the conduction band are prolate spheroids oriented along the E111] directions in k-space; the spheroids are highly anisotropic, with a mass ratio of about 15 : 1. In p-Ge the two isotropic lines in cyclotron resonance suggest that the band edge is at the center of the BriUouin zone; the multiplicity is explained by spin-orbit splitting. It appears that this model may account, qualitatively for the remarkable infra-red absorption of p'-Ge, but it seems to be difficult to explain transport data. From magnetoresistance and from cyclotron resonance it is found that the energy surfaces in n-Si are prolate spheroids directed along [I00] Axes, while the structure of p-Si is like p-Ge.