Description of Impurity Ionization in Semiconductors by Chemical Thermodynamics

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Abstract
The phenomenon of impurity ionization is considered on the basis of exact thermodynamics, involving an extension of the usual mass-action formulism. To make possible the evaluation of quantities of interest in the two-band model of covalent semiconductors, comparison is made with the statistical formulation of ionization equilibrium. Particular consideration is given to the concentration dependence of the impurity ionization energy. Interactions between ionized impurities and mobile carriers are treated by the Debye-Hückel theory of strong electrolytes; the treatment involves only one parameter which must be determined from experimental carrier densities. Very good agreement is found for arsenic-doped germanium using the detailed data and analysis of Debye and Conwell.

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