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Crazy PN junction question...

C

CTho9305

Elite Member
If you took a PN junction and cut it in half (exactly at the junction), then put metal (or any ideal conductor) between the two halves, would the result still function properly as a diode?
 
Originally posted by: pm
Yes. I think.

But you already heard my answer via PM.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but the last sentence of your PM was the same as the other answers I had gotten so far, so I was wondering if someone else could answer the question with certainty. You'd (well, I'd) think someone else would have asked this before 😉.

Now that sgtroyer has said basically the same thing, that makes 4 knowledgeable sources who don't know 😉.
 
No it wouldn't, the n and the p silicon would be shorted together. You'd have a nice linear curve on your scope. To have a pn junction an electric field is set up between the regions depleted of carriers which prevents additional holes or electrons from the n+ and p+ regions from filling in. This bias cannot be maintained across a conductor. This is why in the manufacturing process it is critical to keep metallic contaminants away from the silicon where they can lead to increased junction leakage and possibly complete shorts.
 
That also depends on the width of the conductor, if the conductor is short enought (of the order of 1 nm) the shift in the fermilevel should be maintained across it. I guess the important point is that the electrons should not have chance to thermalize during the transport from p to n.
 
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