Germanium Diodes.More Details I
Question 1: What is a germanium diode?
So I kind of touched on what it looks like, but didn't really go into it. Historically, the first semiconductor diodes were known as cat-whisker diodes and were made with galena crystals (lead sulfide). As time progressed, instead of galena, the semiconductor germanium was used (another mineral crystal), and then silicon.
It seems that there are many different types of the germanium diode:
OA47, OA81, OA90, OA91, OAZ210, IS689, 1N34A, 1N42, 1N60, AAZ17, and AA119
These all act like diodes but, according to some online testers, have different functionality and some are of higher quality than others:
Question 2: What does a germanium diode consist of?
So starting from the broad to our question - a germanium diode is also known as a cat-whisker/crystal diode. The cat’s whisker diode consists of a thin or sharpened metal wire pressed against a semiconducting crystal, in our case germanium. The wire forms the anode and the crystal forms the cathode.
Above is a nice diagram showing the insides of a germanium diode. Seems that the spring wire (P semiconductor) presses against the germanium pellet (N semiconductor) creating a PN junction. And as such, the cathode is on the N side of things as we would expect! I think this is particularly cool because this diode replaces the safety pin pressed against the razor blade in a foxhole radio. That both are using applied pressure against the crystal detector via wire/safety pin is a neat happenstance to me.
Next questions I'll address are why use a germanium diode in a crystal radio set and where is the germanium diode placed in a crystal set?
http://www.techlib.com/electronics/crystal.html
http://baec.tripod.com/articles/crystal.htm