Dopant
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A dopant is an impurity that is added in small amounts to a pure substance to change its properties.
Examples
- Boron, arsenic, phosphorus, antimony, among other substances, are used as dopants when added to a pure semiconductor material to alter its electrical characteristics.
These dopants determine the ability for a semiconductor to become negatively or positively charged. These dopants do this by being applied to a semiconductor in a man-made way through chemical reactions. When an also known as a dopant, is added onto an element this process is called doping.
Valence
P-type crystals are created when a impurity is doped onto a semiconductor. These impurities have three valence electrons. Figuring out how many valence electrons an impurity has can be done by looking at a periodic table.
The word |Group → points to numbers that show how many valence electrons each atom has in its row... well you know what.. sadly i have to stop here because wikipedias.. periodic table of elements isn't setup correctly.. but you get the idea right? Dopants change the atomic structure of a semiconductor by turning it negative or positive through a process called doping. Another name for a dopant is impurity.
- Artificially produced gemstones (such as rubies) sometimes contain a dopant to identify them as such.
Also called: Dope, Doping Agentfr:Dopage (semi-conducteur) nl:dopering