- #1
- 2,186
- 2,694
Often a band diagram is used to explain what happens when two pieces of the same semiconductor, one p-doped, one n-doped, are put together. I am a little confused about it, so here is my question.
Initially and at ##0\mathrm{K}##, the surplus carriers should be confined to their respective acceptor and donor levels, e.g. the flatband diagram would look like follows:
Now, there are no free carriers in the system and thus, the electrons from the donor level should not be able to recombine with the holes from the acceptor levels due to spatial detachment.
Of course, provided some temperature, the acceptor and donor carriers would ionize and free carriers would be at disposal for recombination and thus, a depletion zone would form. But at ##0K## it seems to me that this should not happen. In reality, would a depletion zone be formed anyway somehow (are there other relevant physics taking action)?
Here, I'm considering the ideal case in which ##0K## exists. Let us not go into the discussion whether it practically exists or not.
Initially and at ##0\mathrm{K}##, the surplus carriers should be confined to their respective acceptor and donor levels, e.g. the flatband diagram would look like follows:
Now, there are no free carriers in the system and thus, the electrons from the donor level should not be able to recombine with the holes from the acceptor levels due to spatial detachment.
Of course, provided some temperature, the acceptor and donor carriers would ionize and free carriers would be at disposal for recombination and thus, a depletion zone would form. But at ##0K## it seems to me that this should not happen. In reality, would a depletion zone be formed anyway somehow (are there other relevant physics taking action)?
Here, I'm considering the ideal case in which ##0K## exists. Let us not go into the discussion whether it practically exists or not.
