Semiconductor physics in the context of "Nanoscopic scale"

Nanotechnology is the manipulation of matter with at least one dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometers (nm). At this scale, commonly known as the nanoscale, surface area and quantum mechanical effects become important in describing properties of matter. This definition of nanotechnology includes all types of research and technologies that deal with these special properties. It is common to see the plural form "nanotechnologies" as well as "nanoscale technologies" to refer to research and applications whose common trait is scale. An earlier understanding of nanotechnology referred to the particular technological goal of precisely manipulating atoms and molecules for fabricating macroscale products, now referred to as molecular nanotechnology.

Nanotechnology defined by scale includes fields of science such as surface science, organic chemistry, molecular biology, semiconductor physics, energy storage, engineering, microfabrication, and molecular engineering. The associated research and applications range from extensions of conventional device physics to molecular self-assembly, from developing new materials with dimensions on the nanoscale to direct control of matter on the atomic scale.

In semiconductor physics, the depletion region, also called depletion layer, depletion zone, junction region, space charge region, or space charge layer, is an insulating region within a conductive, doped semiconductor material where the mobile charge carriers diffuse, or have been forced away by an electric field. The only elements left in the depletion region are ionized donor or acceptor impurities. This region of uncovered positive and negative ions is called the depletion region due to the depletion of carriers in this region, leaving none to carry a current. Understanding the depletion region is key to explaining modern semiconductor electronics: diodes, bipolar junction transistors, field-effect transistors, and variable capacitance diodes all rely on depletion region phenomena.

In semiconductor physics, an acceptor is a dopant atom that when substituted into a semiconductor lattice forms a p-type region.

When silicon (Si), having four valence electrons, is doped with elements from group III of the periodic table, such as boron (B) and aluminium (Al), both having three valence electrons, a p-type semiconductor is formed. These dopant elements represent trivalent impurities. Other trivalent dopants include indium (In) and gallium (Ga).