Aluminium antimonide (AlSb) is a

semiconductor A semiconductor is a material which has an electrical conductivity value falling between that of a conductor, such as copper, and an insulator, such as glass. Its resistivity falls as its temperature rises; metals behave in the opposite way ...

of the group III-V family containing

aluminium Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It ha ...

and

antimony Antimony is a chemical element with the symbol Sb (from la, stibium) and atomic number 51. A lustrous gray metalloid, it is found in nature mainly as the sulfide mineral stibnite (Sb2S3). Antimony compounds have been known since ancient ti ...

. The

lattice constant A lattice constant or lattice parameter is one of the physical dimensions and angles that determine the geometry of the unit cells in a crystal lattice, and is proportional to the distance between atoms in the crystal. A simple cubic crystal has o ...

is 0.61 nm. The indirect

bandgap In solid-state physics, a band gap, also called an energy gap, is an energy range in a solid where no electronic states can exist. In graphs of the electronic band structure of solids, the band gap generally refers to the energy difference (i ...

is approximately 1.6 eV at 300 K, whereas the direct band gap is 2.22 eV. Its

electron mobility In solid-state physics, the electron mobility characterises how quickly an electron can move through a metal or semiconductor when pulled by an electric field. There is an analogous quantity for holes, called hole mobility. The term carrier mobil ...

is 200 cm²·V⁻¹·s⁻¹ and hole mobility 400 cm²·V⁻¹·s⁻¹ at 300 K. Its

refractive index In optics, the refractive index (or refraction index) of an optical medium is a dimensionless number that gives the indication of the light bending ability of that medium. The refractive index determines how much the path of light is bent, ...

is 3.3 at a wavelength of 2 μm, and its dielectric constant is 10.9 at microwave frequencies.K Seeger and E Schonherr "Microwave dielectric constant of aluminium antimonide" Semicond. Sci. Technol. 6 (1991) 301 AlSb can be reacted with other III-V materials to produce ternary materials including AlInSb, AlGaSb and AlAsSb. Aluminum antimonide is rather flammable because of the reducing tendency of the antimonide (Sb³⁻) ion. It burns to produce aluminum oxide and

antimony trioxide Antimony(III) oxide is the inorganic compound with the formula Sb2O3. It is the most important commercial compound of antimony. It is found in nature as the minerals valentinite and senarmontite. Like most polymeric oxides, Sb2O3 dissolves i ...

References

III-V semiconductors Antimonides Aluminium compounds III-V compounds Zincblende crystal structure {{inorganic-compound-stub

See also

References