# Diodes and their applications

Semiconductor material has a crystalline structure such that its electrical resistance is high, but not sufficiently high to be classed as an insulator. Germanium and silicon are semiconductor materials.

A specially fused junction of p-type and n-type material has either a high or low resistance, depending upon the polarity of an applied p.d. The charged region of the junction is known as the depletion layer, and a barrier potential is set up across the junction. Special diodes are manufactured, two common ones being the zener diode and the varactor (varicap) diode. The conversion of alternating voltage and current to direct voltage and current is done by rectification followed by smoothing; half-wave or full-wave rectification may be used.

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