Past exam of the chemistry A course of the University of Cambridge / 2022 / Paper 2 / A10 / b / i

Arsenic has five valence electrons, one more than silicon. As a substitutional donor impurity, it supplies a weakly bound extra electron which is largely thermally released into the conduction band at room temperature, leaving an ionized positive donor.

Consequently the mobile electron density increases far above the intrinsic value, so the conductivity increases substantially even at ppm dopant levels. The crystal remains macroscopically neutral: fixed donor charge compensates the added mobile charge.