Read and translate the text Semiconductors There are materials that really occupy a place between the conductors of the electric current and the non-conductors. They

Read and translate the text

Semiconductors

 There are materials that really occupy a place between the conductors of the electric current and the non-conductors. They are called semiconductors. These materials conduct electricity less readily than conductors but much better than insulators.

 Semiconductors include almost all minerals, many chemical elements, a great variety of chemical compounds, alloys of metals, and a number of organic compounds. Like metals, they conduct electricity but they do it less effectively. In metals all electrons are free and in insulators they are fixed. In semiconductors electrons are fixed, too, but the connection is so weak that the heat motion of the atoms of a body easily pulls them away and sets them free.

 Minerals and crystals appear to possess some unexpected properties. It is well known that their conductivity increases with heating and falls with cooling. As a semiconductor is heated, free electrons in it increase in number, hence, its conductivity increases as well.

 Heat is by no means the only phenomenon influencing semiconductors. They are sensitive to light, too. Take germanium as an example. Its electrical properties may greatly change when it is exposed to light. With the help of a ray of light directed at a semiconductor, we can start or stop various machines, effect remote control, and perform lots of other useful things. Just as they are influenced by falling light, semiconductors are also influenced by all radiation. Generally speaking, they are so sensitive that a heated object can be detected by its radiation.

 Such dependence of conductivity on heat and light has opened up great possibilities for various uses of semiconductors. The semiconductor devices are applied for transmission of signals, for automatic control of a variety of processes, for switching on engines, for the reproduction of sound, protection of high-voltage transmission lines, speeding up of some chemical reactions, and so on. On the one hand they may be used to transform light and heat energy directly into electric energy without any complex mechanism with moving parts, and on the other hand, they are capable of generating heat or cold from electricity.

 Russian engineers and scientists turned their attention to semiconductors many years ago. They saw in them a means of solving an old engineering problem, namely, that of direct conversion of heat into electricity without boilers or machines. Semiconductor thermocouples created in Russia convert heat directly into electricity just as a complex system consisting of a steam boiler, a steam engine and a generator does it.

II. Give the English equivalents for the words and word combinations below:

1) полупроводник; 

2) химическое соединение; 

3) сплав; 

4) освобождать; 

5) свойство; 

6) увеличивать(ся); 

7) охлаждение; 

8) чувствительный к; 

9) выставлять; 

10) луч; 

11) направлять на; 

12) дистанционное управление; 

13) находить, обнаруживать; 

14) защита; 

15) ускорение; 

16) решить инженерную проблему; 

17) термоэлемент.

III. Insert words and expressions:

1) Semiconductors include a great variety of (химические соединения), (сплавы металлов).

2) Minerals and crystals appear to possess some unexpected (свойства). Their conductivity increases with (нагревание) and falls with (охлаждение).

3) With the help of a ray of light directed at a semiconductor, we can effect (дистанционное управление).

4) The semiconductor devices are applied for (автоматический контроль) of a variety of processes, for the (воспроизведение) of sound, (ускорение) of some chemical reactions.

5) (Термоэлементы) created in Russia convert heat directly into electricity.

IV. Answer the questions:

1) What do semiconductors include? 

2) How does the atomic structure of semiconductors influence their properties? 

3) What phenomena influence semiconductors? 

4) What are the semiconductor devices applied for? 

5) How do semoconductors help in solving engineering problems?