ABSTRACT
In order to understand the processes taking place in semiconductors, it is necessary to consider phenomena in the crystal structure of semiconductor materials, which occur when their atoms are held in a strictly determined relative position to each other due to weakly bound electrons on their external shells. Among the semiconductors that are now used in electronics, one should point out germanium, silicon, selenium, copper-oxide, copper sulfide, cadmium sulfide, gallium arsenide, and carborundum. Each part of semiconductor material, taken separately, was neutral, since there was a balance of free and bound charges. On the boundary of the division of the two semiconductors, from each side a thin zone with conductivity opposite of that of the original semiconductor is formed. The idea of somehow using semiconductors had been tossed about before World War II, but knowledge about how they worked was scant, and manufacturing semiconductors was difficult.
