Preparation process of semiconductor materials

During the preparation process of semiconductor materials, trace impurities and defects have a significant impact on the materials and devices. On the one hand, due to experimental technology or environmental factors, the semiconductor material is impure, which can lead to reduced performance or even failure of the device. For example, alkali metal impurities form a space charge layer or inversion layer on the inner surface of silicon, causing leakage current.

On the other hand, during the material preparation process, specific impurity elements are also artificially added to improve or enhance the various properties of semiconductor materials and devices. For example, doping can generate other carriers besides the intrinsic excitation of semiconductors, thereby enhancing the conductivity of semiconductors. This is because when there are defects and impurities in the material system, the defect energy level causes special changes in the physical and chemical properties of semiconductor materials.

After doping with donor impurities, impurity ionization leads to an increase in electrons, enhancing the conductivity of semiconductors and turning semiconductors that mainly rely on electron conduction into n-type semiconductors; After doping with acceptor impurities, the doped atoms will lack a valence electron and form a hole, which will become the majority carrier, increasing the conductivity of the semiconductor. This type of hole is the majority carrier and the electron is the minority carrier conducting semiconductor is a p-type semiconductor.

Therefore, exploring how to improve the influence of semiconductor material doping on photocatalytic hydrogen production, overcoming the difficulties of nanoscale doping in semiconductor materials, exploring how to truly improve the performance of photocatalytic hydrogen production materials through doping methods, and analyzing the chemical trends between doped atoms and defects in semiconductor materials are still unavoidable issues for researchers in photocatalytic hydrogen production.