Intrinsic concentration, effective densities of states, and effective mass in silicon

Abstract

An inconsistency between commonly used values of the silicon intrinsic carrier concentration, the effective densities of states in the conduction and valence bands, and the silicon band gap is resolved by critically assessing the relevant literature. As a result of this assessment, experimentally based values for the valence-band ``densities-of-states'' effective mass are determined in the 300-500 K range and are shown to be in good agreement with recent theoretical calculations. At 300 K, experimentally based values of 3.1×10¹⁹ cm^-3 for the valence-band effective densities of states and 1.08×10¹⁰ cm^-3 for the intrinsic carrier concentration are determined. Although in good agreement with theoretical calculations, these are significantly higher and lower, respectively, than commonly used values in the past. These results have important implications in the calculation of other silicon material and device parameters.