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Explain the meaning of Majority and Minority Carriers

      

Explain the meaning of Majority and Minority Carriers

  

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Wilfred
- It has already been discussed that due to the effect of impurity, n-type material has a large number of free electrons whereas p-type material has a large number of holes. However, it may be recalled that even at room temperature, some of the covalent bonds break, thus releasing an equal number of free electrons and holes. An n-type material has its share of electron-hole pairs (released due to breaking of bonds at room temperature) but in addition has a much larger quantity of free electrons due to the effect of impurity. These impurity-caused free electrons are not associated with holes. Consequently, an n- type material has a large number of free electrons and a small number of holes as shown in Fig. 2.17 (i). The free electrons in this case are considered majority carriers — since the majority portion of current in n-type material is by the flow of free electrons — and the holes are the minority carriers.
- Similarly, in a p-type material, holes outnumber the free electrons as shown in Fig. 2.17 (ii). Therefore, holes are the majority carriers and free electrons are the minority carriers.
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Wilfykil answered the question on August 14, 2019 at 05:24

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