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Ridley–Watkins–Hilsum Theory
In solid state physics the Ridley–Watkins–Hilsum theory (RWH) explains the mechanism by which differential negative resistance is developed in a bulk solid state semiconductor material when a voltage is applied to the terminals of the sample. It is the theory behind the operation of the Gunn diode as well as several other microwave semiconductor devices, which are used practically in electronic oscillators to produce microwave power. It is named for British physicists Brian Ridley, Tom Watkins and Cyril Hilsum who wrote theoretical papers on the effect in 1961. Negative resistance oscillations in bulk semiconductors had been observed in the laboratory by J. B. Gunn in 1962, and were thus named the "Gunn effect", but physicist Herbert Kroemer pointed out in 1964 that Gunn's observations could be explained by the RWH theory. In essence, RWH mechanism is the transfer of conduction electrons in a semiconductor from a high mobility valley to lower-mobility, higher-energy satell ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Solid State Physics
Solid-state physics is the study of rigid matter, or solids, through methods such as quantum mechanics, crystallography, electromagnetism, and metallurgy. It is the largest branch of condensed matter physics. Solid-state physics studies how the large-scale properties of solid materials result from their atomic-scale properties. Thus, solid-state physics forms a theoretical basis of materials science. It also has direct applications, for example in the technology of transistors and semiconductors. Background Solid materials are formed from densely packed atoms, which interact intensely. These interactions produce the mechanical (e.g. hardness and elasticity), thermal, electrical, magnetic and optical properties of solids. Depending on the material involved and the conditions in which it was formed, the atoms may be arranged in a regular, geometric pattern ( crystalline solids, which include metals and ordinary water ice) or irregularly (an amorphous solid such as common ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Electric Field
An electric field (sometimes E-field) is the physical field that surrounds electrically charged particles and exerts force on all other charged particles in the field, either attracting or repelling them. It also refers to the physical field for a system of charged particles. Electric fields originate from electric charges and time-varying electric currents. Electric fields and magnetic fields are both manifestations of the electromagnetic field, one of the four fundamental interactions (also called forces) of nature. Electric fields are important in many areas of physics, and are exploited in electrical technology. In atomic physics and chemistry, for instance, the electric field is the attractive force holding the atomic nucleus and electrons together in atoms. It is also the force responsible for chemical bonding between atoms that result in molecules. The electric field is defined as a vector field that associates to each point in space the electrostatic (Coulomb) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Physica Status Solidi A
''Physica Status Solidi'', often stylized ''physica status solidi'' or ''pss'', is a family of international peer-reviewed, scientific journals, publishing research on all aspects of solid state physics, and materials science. It is owned and published by Wiley–VCH. These journals publish over 2000 articles per year, making it one of the largest international publications in condensed matter physics. The current editor in chief is Stefan Hildebrandt at the Editorial Office based in Berlin. This office also manages the peer-review process. History ''Physica Status Solidi'' was founded by Karl Wolfgang Böer (then at Humboldt University of Berlin) in East Berlin and published its first issue in July 1961. Shortly after the journal was founded, the construction of the Berlin Wall in August 1961 exacerbated the distances between scientists from the Eastern and Western blocs. Throughout the cold war ''Physica Status Solidi'' maintained political independence and English as publi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prentice Hall
Prentice Hall was an American major educational publisher owned by Savvas Learning Company. Prentice Hall publishes print and digital content for the 6–12 and higher-education market, and distributes its technical titles through the Safari Books Online e-reference service. History On October 13, 1913, law professor Charles Gerstenberg and his student Richard Ettinger founded Prentice Hall. Gerstenberg and Ettinger took their mothers' maiden names, Prentice and Hall, to name their new company. Prentice Hall became known as a publisher of trade books by authors such as Norman Vincent Peale; elementary, secondary, and college textbooks; loose-leaf information services; and professional books. Prentice Hall acquired the training provider Deltak in 1979. Prentice Hall was acquired by Gulf+Western in 1984, and became part of that company's publishing division Simon & Schuster. S&S sold several Prentice Hall subsidiaries: Deltak and Resource Systems were sold to National Education ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Indium Arsenide
Indium arsenide, InAs, or indium monoarsenide, is a narrow-bandgap semiconductor composed of indium and arsenic. It has the appearance of grey cubic crystals with a melting point of 942 °C. Indium arsenide is similar in properties to gallium arsenide and is a direct bandgap material, with a bandgap of 0.35 eV at room temperature. Indium arsenide is used for construction of infrared detectors, for the wavelength range of 1–3.8 µm. The detectors are usually photovoltaic photodiodes. Cryogenically cooled detectors have lower noise, but InAs detectors can be used in higher-power applications at room temperature as well. Indium arsenide is also used for making of diode lasers. InAs is well known for its high electron mobility and narrow energy bandgap. It is widely used as terahertz radiation source as it is a strong photo-Dember emitter. The optoelectronic properties and phonon vibrations are slightly changed under the effect of temperature over the range form 0 K t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zinc Selenide
Zinc selenide (ZnSe) is a light-yellow, solid compound comprising zinc (Zn) and selenium (Se). It is an intrinsic semiconductor with a band gap of about 2.70 eV at . ZnSe rarely occurs in nature, and is found in the mineral that was named after Hans Stille called "stilleite." Properties ZnSe can be made in both hexagonal ( wurtzite) and cubic (zincblende) crystal structure. It is a wide-bandgap semiconductor of the II-VI semiconductor group (since zinc and selenium belong to the 12th and 16th groups of the periodic table, respectively). The material can be doped n-type doping with, for instance, halogen elements. P-type doping is more difficult, but can be achieved by introducing gallium. Applications * ZnSe is used to form II-VI light-emitting diodes and diode lasers. It emits blue light. * ZnSe doped with chromium (ZnSe:Cr) has been used as an infrared laser gain medium emitting at about 2.4 μm. * It is used as an infrared optical material with a remarkably wid ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cadmium Telluride
Cadmium telluride (CdTe) is a stable crystalline compound formed from cadmium and tellurium. It is mainly used as the semiconducting material in cadmium telluride photovoltaics and an infrared optical window. It is usually sandwiched with cadmium sulfide to form a p–n junction solar PV cell. Applications CdTe is used to make thin film solar cells, accounting for about 8% of all solar cells installed in 2011. They are among the lowest-cost types of solar cell, although a comparison of total installed cost depends on installation size and many other factors, and has changed rapidly from year to year. The CdTe solar cell market is dominated by First Solar. In 2011, around 2 GWp of CdTe solar cells were produced; For more details and discussion see cadmium telluride photovoltaics. CdTe can be alloyed with mercury to make a versatile infrared detector material ( HgCdTe). CdTe alloyed with a small amount of zinc makes an excellent solid-state X-ray and gamma ray detector ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Indium Phosphide
Indium phosphide (InP) is a binary semiconductor composed of indium and phosphorus. It has a face-centered cubic (" zincblende") crystal structure, identical to that of GaAs and most of the III-V semiconductors. Manufacturing Indium phosphide can be prepared from the reaction of white phosphorus and indium iodide at 400 °C., also by direct combination of the purified elements at high temperature and pressure, or by thermal decomposition of a mixture of a trialkyl indium compound and phosphine. Uses InP is used in high-power and high-frequency electronics because of its superior electron velocity with respect to the more common semiconductors silicon and gallium arsenide. It was used with indium gallium arsenide to make a record breaking pseudomorphic heterojunction bipolar transistor that could operate at 604 GHz. It also has a direct bandgap, making it useful for optoelectronics devices like laser diodes. The company Infinera uses indium phosphide as its majo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gallium Arsenide
Gallium arsenide (GaAs) is a III-V direct band gap semiconductor with a zinc blende crystal structure. Gallium arsenide is used in the manufacture of devices such as microwave frequency integrated circuits, monolithic microwave integrated circuits, infrared light-emitting diodes, laser diodes, solar cells and optical windows. GaAs is often used as a substrate material for the epitaxial growth of other III-V semiconductors, including indium gallium arsenide, aluminum gallium arsenide and others. Preparation and chemistry In the compound, gallium has a +3 oxidation state. Gallium arsenide single crystals can be prepared by three industrial processes: * The vertical gradient freeze (VGF) process. * Crystal growth using a horizontal zone furnace in the Bridgman-Stockbarger technique, in which gallium and arsenic vapors react, and free molecules deposit on a seed crystal at the cooler end of the furnace. * Liquid encapsulated Czochralski (LEC) growth is used for prod ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Effective Mass (solid-state Physics)
In solid state physics, a particle's effective mass (often denoted m^*) is the mass that it ''seems'' to have when responding to forces, or the mass that it seems to have when interacting with other identical particles in a thermal distribution. One of the results from the band theory of solids is that the movement of particles in a periodic potential, over long distances larger than the lattice spacing, can be very different from their motion in a vacuum. The effective mass is a quantity that is used to simplify band structures by modeling the behavior of a free particle with that mass. For some purposes and some materials, the effective mass can be considered to be a simple constant of a material. In general, however, the value of effective mass depends on the purpose for which it is used, and can vary depending on a number of factors. For electrons or electron holes in a solid, the effective mass is usually stated as a factor multiplying the rest mass of an electron, ''m'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ohm's Law
Ohm's law states that the current through a conductor between two points is directly proportional to the voltage across the two points. Introducing the constant of proportionality, the resistance, one arrives at the usual mathematical equation that describes this relationship: :I = \frac, where is the current through the conductor, ''V'' is the voltage measured ''across'' the conductor and ''R'' is the resistance of the conductor. More specifically, Ohm's law states that the ''R'' in this relation is constant, independent of the current. If the resistance is not constant, the previous equation cannot be called ''Ohm's law'', but it can still be used as a definition of static/DC resistance. Ohm's law is an empirical relation which accurately describes the conductivity of the vast majority of electrically conductive materials over many orders of magnitude of current. However some materials do not obey Ohm's law; these are called non-ohmic. The law was named after the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charge Carrier
In physics, a charge carrier is a particle or quasiparticle that is free to move, carrying an electric charge, especially the particles that carry electric charges in electrical conductors. Examples are electrons, ions and holes. The term is used most commonly in solid state physics. In a conducting medium, an electric field can exert force on these free particles, causing a net motion of the particles through the medium; this is what constitutes an electric current. In conducting media, particles serve to carry charge: *In many metals, the charge carriers are electrons. One or two of the valence electrons from each atom are able to move about freely within the crystal structure of the metal. The free electrons are referred to as conduction electrons, and the cloud of free electrons is called a Fermi gas. Many metals have electron and hole bands. In some, the majority carriers are holes. *In electrolytes, such as salt water, the charge carriers are ions, which are atoms ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
