The potential barrier of a semiconductor is 0.6 Vat room temperature. What is the approximate value of its potential barrier, if the temperature is increased by `20^@C`?

Options

A. 0.7V
B. 0.8V
C. 1.00 V
D. 0.5V

Explanation

To solve the problem of determining the potential barrier of a semiconductor when the temperature is increased by \(20^\circ C\), we can follow these steps:

### Step 1: Understand the Concept of Potential Barrier
The potential barrier in a semiconductor is the energy required for charge carriers (electrons or holes) to move from the valence band to the conduction band. At room temperature, this barrier is given as \(0.6V\).

### Step 2: Analyze the Effect of Temperature on the Potential Barrier
As the temperature increases, the thermal energy available to the charge carriers also increases. This means that more electrons in the valence band will gain enough energy to jump across the potential barrier into the conduction band.

### Step 3: Determine the Approximate Change in Potential Barrier
With an increase in temperature, the potential barrier typically decreases because the increased thermal energy allows more electrons to cross the barrier with less additional energy required.

### Step 4: Estimate the New Potential Barrier
While the exact relationship can be complex, a common approximation is that for every \(10^\circ C\) increase in temperature, the potential barrier decreases by about \(0.1V\). Since we are increasing the temperature by \(20^\circ C\), we can estimate the decrease in the potential barrier as follows:

\[ \text{Decrease in potential barrier} = 0.1V \times 2 = 0.2V \]

### Step 5: Calculate the New Potential Barrier
Now, we subtract the decrease from the original potential barrier:

\[ \text{New potential barrier} = 0.6V - 0.2V = 0.4V \]

### Conclusion
Thus, the approximate value of the potential barrier when the temperature is increased by \(20^\circ C\) is \(0.4V\).

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