Page 9 - Electrical Properties of Materials

viii Contents

9.12 The Zener diode and the avalanche diode 186
9.12.1 Zener breakdown 187
9.12.2 Avalanche breakdown 187
9.13 Varactor diodes 188
9.14 Field-effect transistors 189
9.15 Heterostructures 194
9.16 Charge-coupled devices 198
9.17 Silicon controlled rectifier 200
9.18 The Gunn effect 201
9.19 Strain gauges 204
9.20 Measurement of magnetic field by the Hall effect 205
9.21 Gas sensors 205
9.22 Microelectronic circuits 206
9.23 Plasma etching 210
9.24 Recent techniques for overcoming limitations 212
9.25 Building in the third dimension 213
9.26 Microelectro-mechanical systems (MEMS) 215
9.26.1 A movable mirror 215
9.26.2 A mass spectrometer on a chip 216
9.27 Nanoelectronics 218
9.28 Social implications 222
Exercises 223

10 Dielectric materials

10.1 Introduction 225
10.2 Macroscopic approach 225
10.3 Microscopic approach 226
10.4 Types of polarization 227
10.5 The complex dielectric constant and the refractive index 228
10.6 Frequency response 229
10.7 Anomalous dispersion 230
10.8 Polar and non-polar materials 231
10.9 The Debye equation 233
10.10 The effective field 234
10.11 Acoustic waves 236
10.12 Dielectric breakdown 240
10.12.1 Intrinsic breakdown 240
10.12.2 Thermal breakdown 240
10.12.3 Discharge breakdown 241
10.13 Piezoelectricity, pyroelectricity, and ferroelectricity 241
10.13.1 Piezoelectricity 241
10.13.2 Pyroelectricity 247
10.13.3 Ferroelectrics 248
10.14 Interaction of optical phonons with drifting electrons 249
10.15 Optical fibres 250
10.16 The Xerox process 252
10.17 Liquid crystals 252
10.18 Dielectrophoresis 254
Exercises 256