Title: intrinsic semiconductor
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - intrinsic semiconductor
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.08833
Status: current

Definition
Semiconductor in which mobile charge carriers are generated solely by thermal excitation of electrons.

Notes
1) Intrinsic semiconductor is free of dopants, so that it has no energy states in the bandgap.
2) Pure conjugated polymers such as poly(ethene-1,2-diyl) or poly(pyrrole-2,5-diyl) and other polymers with delocalized valence electrons such as polysilanes are examples of intrinsic semiconductors.

Related Terms
- charge carrier generation: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/08778
- charge carriers: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/08775
- conjugated polymers: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/08785
- extrinsic semiconductor: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/08820
- poly(ethene-1,2-diyl): https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/08890
- polysilanes: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/08899

Source
- PAC, 2022, 94, 15. 'Glossary of terms relating to electronic, photonic and magnetic properties of polymers (IUPAC Recommendations 2021)' on page 36 (https://doi.org/10.1515/pac-2020-0501)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/08833/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/08833/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/08833/xml

Citation: Citation: 'intrinsic semiconductor' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.08833
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Accessed: 2026-04-18T09:11:08+00:00