Indium gallium arsenide phosphide () is a

quaternary compound In chemistry, a quaternary compound is a compound consisting of exactly four chemical elements. In another use of the term in organic chemistry, a quaternary compound is or has a cation consisting of a central positively charged atom with four ...

semiconductor material A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity between that of a Electrical conductor, conductor and an Insulator (electricity), insulator. Its conductivity can be modified by adding impurities ("doping (semiconductor), doping") to ...

, an alloy of

gallium arsenide Gallium arsenide (GaAs) is a III-V direct band gap semiconductor with a Zincblende (crystal structure), zinc blende crystal structure. Gallium arsenide is used in the manufacture of devices such as microwave frequency integrated circuits, monoli ...

gallium phosphide Gallium phosphide (GaP), a phosphide of gallium, is a compound semiconductor material with an indirect band gap of 2.24 eV at room temperature. Impure polycrystalline material has the appearance of pale orange or grayish pieces. Undoped single cr ...

indium arsenide Indium arsenide, InAs, or indium monoarsenide, is a narrow-bandgap semiconductor composed of indium and arsenic. It has the appearance of grey cubic crystals with a melting point of 942 °C. Indium arsenide is similar in properties to gallium ars ...

, or

indium phosphide Indium phosphide (InP) is a binary semiconductor composed of indium and phosphorus. It has a face-centered cubic ("zincblende (crystal structure), zincblende") crystal structure, identical to that of gallium arsenide, GaAs and most of the List of ...

. This compound has applications in photonic devices, due to the ability to tailor its

band gap In solid-state physics and solid-state chemistry, a band gap, also called a bandgap or energy gap, is an energy range in a solid where no electronic states exist. In graphs of the electronic band structure of solids, the band gap refers to t ...

via changes in the alloy mole ratios, ''x'' and ''y''.

Indium phosphide Indium phosphide (InP) is a binary semiconductor composed of indium and phosphorus. It has a face-centered cubic ("zincblende (crystal structure), zincblende") crystal structure, identical to that of gallium arsenide, GaAs and most of the List of ...

-based

photonic integrated circuits A photonic integrated circuit (PIC) or integrated optical circuit is a microchip containing two or more photonic components that form a functioning circuit. This technology detects, generates, transports, and processes light. Photonic integrated ci ...

, or PICs, commonly use alloys of to construct

quantum well A quantum well is a potential well with only discrete energy values. The classic model used to demonstrate a quantum well is to confine particles, which were initially free to move in three dimensions, to two dimensions, by forcing them to occup ...

waveguides A waveguide is a structure that guides waves by restricting the transmission of energy to one direction. Common types of waveguides include acoustic waveguides which direct sound, optical waveguides which direct light, and radio-frequency wav ...

and other photonic structures, lattice matched to an InP substrate, enabling single-crystal epitaxial growth onto InP. Many devices operating in the

near-infrared Infrared (IR; sometimes called infrared light) is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than that of visible light but shorter than microwaves. The infrared spectral band begins with the waves that are just longer than those of ...

1.55 μm wavelength window utilize this alloy, and are employed as optical components (such as

laser A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word ''laser'' originated as an acronym for light amplification by stimulated emission of radi ...

transmitters,

photodetectors Photodetectors, also called photosensors, are devices that detect light or other forms of electromagnetic radiation and convert it into an electrical signal. They are essential in a wide range of applications, from digital imaging and optical c ...

and modulators) in

C-band C band may refer to: * C band (IEEE), a radio frequency band from 4 to 8 GHz * C band (infrared), an infrared band from 1530 to 1565 nm (roughly 200 THz) * C band (NATO) The NATO C-band is the obsolete designation given to the radio frequen ...

communications systems.

Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems The Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE (or Fraunhofer ISE) is an institute of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft. Located in Freiburg, Germany, the Institute performs applied scientific and engineering research and development for all a ...

ISE reported a

triple-junction solar cell Multi-junction (MJ) solar cells are solar cells with multiple p–n junctions made of different semiconductor materials. Each material's p–n junction will produce electric current in response to different wavelengths of light. The use of mult ...

utilizing . The cell has very high efficiency of 35.9% (claimed to be a record).

References

External links

Physical properties of gallium arsenide phosphide
III-V semiconductors Indium compounds Gallium compounds Arsenides Phosphides {{CMP-stub

See also

References

External links