Magnetic semiconductors

Abstract

As far as the electrical conductivity is concerned, solids are usually classified as metals, semiconductors, or insulators. In metals the concentration of the charge carriers responsible for the electrical conductivity is large, whereas in semiconductors and insulators the carrier concentration is much smaller. The distinction between semiconductors and insulators is based on a difference in the nature of the conductivity. For semiconductors the charge carriers (electrons or holes) occupy the states of energy bands; these states are not Iocalized on particular atoms, but spread throughout the entire crystal. In such a situation the mobility of the carriers can be quite high and would, in fact, be infinite in a rigid periodic lattice; in this model the thermal motion of the atoms induces a scattering of the carriers and thus limits the conductivity to finite values. The classical examples of semiconductors are the elements Si and Ge and compounds such as GaAs, InSb, CdTe, ZnS, etc.