Explain, in terms of atomic structure, why germanium is chemically similar to silicon.?
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It has the same number and type of valence electrons.  The valence electrons are the outer electrons and are the most important determining factor of chemical reactivity.
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A material that is neither a good conductor of electricity (like copper) nor a good insulator (like rubber). The most common semiconductor materials are silicon and germanium. These materials are then doped to create an excess or lack of electrons. \nComputer chips, both for CPU and memory, are composed of semiconductor materials. Semiconductors make it possible to miniaturize electronic components, such as transistors. Not only does miniaturization mean that the components take up less space, it also means that they are faster and require less energy.
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Elements consist of a single type of atom.  For example, pure iron has only iron atoms.  Compounds combine more than one type of atom, for example, iron and oxygen form a compound called iron oxide, also known as rust.  Elements and compounds are alike because they cannot be separated into different materials by mechanical means, like filtering, magnetic separation or picking with tweezers.  The are different in that element have only one kinds of atom, while compounds have two or more types of atoms.  Even when you have material which is all one type of atom, such as a hydrogen gas cloud, a distinction is made between "elemental hydrogen", which is extremely reactive, and H2, which might need an outside source of energy to cause it to react with another element.
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While similar to carbon, silicon does not form double bonds in the way that carbon does. Nor does it form extensive ring compounds. This is ultimately due to the fact that carbon is smaller and more electronegative than silicon. The only way that silicon form complex structures is in conjunction with oxygen and even then, it is more limited than carbon. So it is unlikely that the complexities required for life would be possible for silicon based chemistry. Too bad....
20534
actually, they are if you think about it.  All protons, electrons, and neutrons are alike.  It's just that depending on how many of these things different atoms have makes them different elements, and gives them different properties.  Like, electrons occupy orbitals in different fashions, some are more stable, and some want to gain or lose electrons to be stable so that causes them to form compounds with other elements where one takes and one gives electrons(ionic bonds) or other compounds where they actually share electrons, forming new, hybrid orbitals(covalant bonds) and these properties give them different melting/boiling points, making them solid, liquid, and gas at different temperatures because the more stable an element or compound is, the higher its melting/boiling point will be.  Also, these properties with numbers of electrons cause the elements to absorb different wavelengths of light, and so reflecting different wavelengths and therefore different colors, making everything different colors.  Elements combining in different ways make things have different properties, and form big molecules and such, and this is what everything in the entire universe is made up of.  So down at the subatomic level, everything is made of protons, neutrons, and electrons.  And these 3 things are all made up of leptons and mesons, which are made up of quarks.  so everything boils down to quarks, so everything is a lot more alike than you think.
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So, I don't think we have the technology to actually know if two atoms are identical.  Right now, we just think they are based on various observations.  It could turn out that each atom is actually a mini solar system like you suggested or it could turn out to be just identical atoms.  Science is just a series of guesses based on our current observations.  It changes all the time.
313180
a molecule can act like a silicon chip, when electrons in the orbitals are spinning in their fixed directions. by placing electrons into certain spins, data can be stored like a binary code. thats what quantum computing hopes to achieve; building micro computers.
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im highly sceptical on that, because the bond angle of carbon is different from other chemicals, but if one was to be formed, i would imagine silicone or germanium would form it, although, silicone forms stronger bonds, which cant bend that easily, I THINK... not perticularly true... just an assumption on my part
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A transistor is a semiconductor device made out of materials like silicon. The word is a contraction of 'transfer resistor' and it is used to control electrical currents passing through it.\n\nTo understand how a transistor works, imagine the crystal structure of silicon. Each atom can link to six other atoms (up, down, left, right, forward and back) by sharing their electrons. So they form a regular crystal like balls stacked up in a box.\n\nNow, imagine that some of those atoms are replaced (in one layer) with atoms that are short one electron. And other atoms are replaced in another layer very close to it with atoms that have an extra electron.\n\nThe extra electrons just naturally want to fill the spaces in those atoms that are short one electron. But because those atoms are naturally supposed to have one extra and one less (compared to the silicon), the crystal has an interesting property now.\n\nIf you put wires to either side of the layers, and apply a voltage with a battery (electrical pressure), as long as the negative terminal (where the electrons come out of the battery) goes toward the side with the extra electrons, they will flow across the junction between the layers. To visualize this, imagine men standing in rows and passing buckets of water, like to put out a fire in the old days if pumps and hoses were not available. \n\nIf the battery is reversed, the electrons are attracted AWAY from the junction, and no current flows. So, what we have is a device which will only let current flow in one direction, a one-way valve. This is called a diode.\n\nWhen a device is made with three layers, it is a transistor. The space between the two layers is called the base. By injecting tiny amounts of electrons into the base, a much larger current can be controlled. This controlled current flows through the entire crystal, starting from one end, through one junctiob between the layers, through the other junction betweenthe layers, and then out. (The other two regions are called the emitter and the collector, because of the direction in which the current travels.)\n\nThat is a Bipolar Junction Transistor, or BJT. They come in two basic types, with the two extra-electron layers inside, or outside. (PNP and NPN types, but don't worry about that. There won't be a quiz later.)\n\nThe other major kind of transistor is the Field-effect transistor (FET). It works a little differently. There is a single junction, and it is shaped in a sort of tunnel. As the voltage to the junction is changed, the electrons still repel each other and are attracted to the positive regions. What this does is to change the area through which the current can flow, kind of like squeezing a rubber garden hose with a pair of vise-grip pliers. You can apply a low voltage to let the curent flow, a high voltage to pinch the current off, or any voltage in between to control the flow. So it does the same job as the BJT's.\n\nTransistors  can be used to do all the things that vacuum tubes used to be used for. They can be used as switches (like in computers) or to make small voltages and curents larger (like in amplifiers) and to detect radio waves (like in radios and tv sets.) Transitors can be made singly in little packages (plastic buttons or metal cans) with wires coming out of them, or used in groups and arrays and combinations by the million in devices called integrated circuits (IC's). A microprocessor or memory chip in your computer is an IC. You can search on these terms and see pictures of them and find articles describing more about them.\n\nThis is a very simple overview of what transistors are like. I have said almost nothing about how they are made or how they can be connected together to do these things, but that is a subject called electrical engineering that would take years to study. I hope this helps you to understand what a transistor is and gives you a little glimpse of how they can be used.
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It is used in microchips. Silicon is a semi-conductor which means it falls somewhere midline between a conductor of electricity & an insulator which does not conduct electricity.\n\nIt is found in virtually everything: cement, china, microchips, paints, etc. Don't forget those little packs you find in your shoe box that absorb moisture.\n\n:)
83641
hi there. may be I can help you a little bit. I am taking a class about III-V compound right now. so what I got is this technology is good as optoelectronic. where in elemental devices such as Sillicon is not that good, therefore usually we use III-V compund such as GaAs as laser diode or something that has connection with light emitting or light receiver. but this explanation is still too general. I think if I am not misunderstood that it has better reception for photon is because the EL2 (electrical Level2) deep level which is relatively very sensitive to light. hope this is help you a little bit.
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ATOM..basic building block\n \n[Gr.,=uncuttable (indivisible)], basic unit of matter; more properly, the smallest unit of a chemical element having the properties of that element.  That is the definition.  Continue to read further; it really gives great detail!!!!!\n\nStructure of the Atom\n\nThe atom consists of a central, positively charged core, the nucleus, and negatively charged particles called electrons that are found in orbits around the nucleus.\n\nThe Nucleus\n\nAlmost the entire mass of the atom is concentrated in the nucleus, which occupies only a tiny fraction of the atom's volume. The nucleus of an atom consists of neutrons and protons, the neutron being an uncharged particle and the proton a positively charged one. Their masses are almost equal. Atoms containing the same number of protons but different numbers of neutrons represent different forms, or isotopes, of the same element.\n\nThe Electrons\n\nSurrounding the nucleus of an atom are its electrons; for a neutral atom, the number of electrons is equal to the atomic number. The outermost electrons of an atom determine its chemical and electrical properties. An atom may combine chemically with another atom in various ways, either by giving up or receiving electrons, thus setting up an electrical attraction between the atoms (see ion), or by sharing one or more pairs of electrons (see chemical bond). Because metals have few outermost electrons and tend to give them up easily, they are good conductors of electricity or heat (see conduction).\n\nThe electrons are often described as revolving about the nucleus as the planets revolve about the sun. This picture, however, is misleading. The quantum theory has shown that all particles in motion also have certain wave properties. For a particle the size of an electron, these properties are of considerable importance. As a result the electrons in an atom cannot be pictured as localized in space, but rather should be viewed as smeared out over the entire orbit so that they form a cloud of charge. The electron clouds around the nucleus represent regions in which the electrons are most likely to be found. The shapes of these clouds can be very complex, in marked contrast to the simple elliptical orbits of planets. Surprisingly, the sizes of all atoms are comparable, in spite of the large differences in the number of electrons they contain.\n\nAtomic Weight and Number\n\nThe atomic number of an atom is simply the number of protons in its nucleus. The atomic weight of an atom is given in most cases by the mass number of the atom, equal to the total number of protons and neutrons combined. An atom may be conveniently symbolized by its chemical symbol with the atomic number and mass number written as subscript and superscript, respectively. For example, the symbol for uranium is U (atomic number 92); the isotopes of uranium with atomic weights 235 and 238 are indicated by 23592U and 23892U.\n\nDevelopment of Atomic Theory\n\nEarly Atomic Theory\n\nThe atomic theory, which holds that matter is composed of tiny, indivisible particles in constant motion, was proposed in the 5th cent. by the Greek philosophers Leucippus and Democritus and was adopted by the Roman Lucretius. However, Aristotle did not accept the theory, and it was ignored for many centuries. Interest in the atomic theory was revived during the 18th cent. following work on the nature and behavior of gases (see gas laws).\n\nFrom Dalton to the Periodic Table\n\nModern atomic theory begins with the work of John Dalton, published in 1808. He held that all the atoms of an element are of exactly the same size and weight (see atomic weight) and are in these two respects unlike the atoms of any other element. He stated that atoms of the elements unite chemically in simple numerical ratios to form compounds. The best evidence for his theory was the experimentally verified law of simple multiple proportions, which gives a relation between the weights of two elements th
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A substance as germanium or silicon whose electrical conductivity is intermediate between that of a metal and an insulator.
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Copper is a pure metal. The conductivity of metals increase with temparature owing to decrease in the vibration of the +ve ions in the crystal lattice. Germanium is a semiconductor. Its conductivity decreases with temparature. Hence copper has more conductivity than Ge at low temps.
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Silicon is an Atom... so 1.\n\nIf you asking about protons and neutrons....\n\nName: Silicon \nSymbol: Si \nAtomic Number: 14 \nAtomic Mass: 28.0855 amu \nMelting Point: 1410.0 °C (1683.15 K, 2570.0 °F) \nBoiling Point: 2355.0 °C (2628.15 K, 4271.0 °F) \nNumber of Protons/Electrons: 14 \nNumber of Neutrons: 14 \nClassification: Metalloid \nCrystal Structure: Cubic \nDensity @ 293 K: 2.329 g/cm3 \nColor: grey
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The simplest reasonable model of the atom is the Bohr model, which does tend to look like a mini solar system. In actuality, atomic structure is not so easy to define. The further you advance in chemistry, the more complex the models become, and the less they look like "mini solar systems". But they are still only reasonable attempts to visualize a very complex system, and cannot physically confine all the expected paths of the electrons' orbits.
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Lotus-effect surfaces have a coating that similar to the lotus plant has a nano-structure that prevents both water and dirt from sticking to the surface.\n\nElectron force microscopy can generate nano-structures of  very few atoms on silicon surfaces. This will be used to miniaturize electronics even more.