- #1
Puma24
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Homework Statement
I've been given some Bench Notes for a Physics experiment I am supposed to be writing a report up for. What the notes show is a graph of logp (log of resistivity) and logn (log of number density of charge carriers) for given N and P type semiconductors. What is clearly shown is that for two N and P type semiconductors with the same n, P types have a higher resistivity than for the N type. My question is, why?
Homework Equations
None. :)
The Attempt at a Solution
Well, I was thinking that since we are dealing with positive charge carriers in the P type, there is an inherent resistivity increase due to the fact that the charge carriers, rather than just move themselves, have to wait for electrons to fill and then leave their electron holes. Perhaps there is some energy loss when the electrons enter and then exit the holes, perhaps something to do with entering the conduction band, lowering to the valence band, then having to be excited back to the conduction band before moving on.
I've tried googling information pages on this phenomenon, and while a lot of them indicate there is this notiable resitivity difference, none attempt to explain it.
Any help is appreciated. Thanks!