Deathnium is a name given by early electronic engineers to a trap in semiconductors that reduces the lifetime of both electron and hole charge carriers. It is considered the fifth of the imperfections that must be considered in semiconductor crystals to understand semiconductor effects along with holes, electrons, donors, and acceptors. Deathnium hastens the establishment of equilibrium between holes and electrons. This condition was not anticipated but it emerged during the invention of bipolar junction transistor after the influence of deep-trap impurities introduced by contamination of the manufacturing machinery, which reduced the lifetime of semiconductors. Research in the early 1950s eventually revealed that "deathnium" was usually copper.
References
Transistor Electronics: Imperfections, Unipolar and Analog Transistors, Shockley, W., Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc., Murray Hill, N.J.; Proceedings of the IRE Volume: 40, Issue: 11 pp: 1289-1313 (Nov. 1952) doi:10.1109/JRPROC.1952.273954
External links http://www.guitarjamdaily.com/index.php/columnists/120-columnists/2105-pedal-insider-junction-capacitance-and-the-miller-effect-in-the-fuzz-face.html William Shockley (11 Dec 1956). "Nobel lecture: Transistor technology evokes new physics" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on December 28, 2022.