halbleitender

Halbleitender is the attributive form of the German adjective halbleitend, meaning semiconducting. In German-language physics and electronics, halbleitender describes materials, layers or components whose electrical conductivity arises from the band structure characteristic of semiconductors. Such materials conduct electricity neither as good metals nor as insulators; their conductivity lies between those of metals and insulators and can be controlled by factors such as temperature, impurities and electric fields.

Semiconductors, or Halbleiter, provide the basis for halbleitende devices. Intrinsic semiconductors have limited conductivity at room temperature, but this can be significantly enhanced by doping with donor or acceptor impurities, creating n-type or p-type halbleitende materials. This modulation of charge-carrier concentration enables device operation. Conductivity also depends on temperature, illumination and electric fields, making halbleitende properties highly tunable for electronic applications.

Common halbleitende materials include silicon (Si), germanium (Ge) and compound semiconductors such as gallium arsenide (GaAs) and indium phosphide (InP). From these materials come many essential devices and systems, including diodes, transistors, integrated circuits, solar cells, LEDs and various sensors. In technical writing, terms like halbleitende Schicht (semiconducting layer) or halbleitender Bauelement (semiconductor device) illustrate typical usage. In German, halbleiter is the noun for the material, halbleitend the adjective, and halbleitender its declinational form when describing a masculine or neuter noun.