Indium gallium phosphide (InGaP), also called gallium indium phosphide (GaInP), 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. ...

composed of

indium Indium is a chemical element with the symbol In and atomic number 49. Indium is the softest metal that is not an alkali metal. It is a silvery-white metal that resembles tin in appearance. It is a post-transition metal that makes up 0.21 par ...

gallium Gallium is a chemical element with the symbol Ga and atomic number 31. Discovered by French chemist Paul-Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran in 1875, Gallium is in group 13 of the periodic table and is similar to the other metals of the group ( alum ...

and

phosphorus Phosphorus is a chemical element with the symbol P and atomic number 15. Elemental phosphorus exists in two major forms, white phosphorus and red phosphorus, but because it is highly reactive, phosphorus is never found as a free element on Ea ...

. It is used in high-power and high-frequency electronics because of its superior electron velocity with respect to the more common semiconductors

silicon Silicon is a chemical element with the symbol Si and atomic number 14. It is a hard, brittle crystalline solid with a blue-grey metallic luster, and is a tetravalent metalloid and semiconductor. It is a member of group 14 in the periodic ...

and gallium arsenide. It is used mainly in

HEMT A high-electron-mobility transistor (HEMT), also known as heterostructure FET (HFET) or modulation-doped FET (MODFET), is a field-effect transistor incorporating a junction between two materials with different band gaps (i.e. a heterojunction) ...

and HBT structures, but also for the fabrication of high efficiency solar cells used for space applications and, in combination with

aluminium Aluminium (aluminum in AmE, American and CanE, Canadian English) is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately o ...

( AlGaInP alloy) to make high brightness LEDs with orange-red, orange, yellow, and green colors. Some semiconductor devices such as EFluor Nanocrystal use InGaP as their core particle. Indium gallium phosphide is a solid solution of

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

and gallium phosphide. Ga_0.5In_0.5P is a solid solution of special importance, which is almost lattice matched to

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

. This allows, in combination with (Al_xGa_1−x)_0.5In_0.5, the growth of lattice matched

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 ...

s for red emitting semiconductor lasers, e.g. red emitting (650 nm) RCLEDs or

VCSEL The vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser, or VCSEL , is a type of semiconductor laser diode with laser beam emission perpendicular from the top surface, contrary to conventional edge-emitting semiconductor lasers (also ''in-plane'' lasers) wh ...

s for

PMMA PMMA may refer to: * para-Methoxymethamphetamine ''para''-Methoxy-''N''-methylamphetamine (also known as PMMA, Red Mitsubishi), chemically known as methyl-MA, 4-methoxy-''N''-methylamphetamine, 4-MMA) or (4-PMDA, as listed to its original phy ...

plastic Plastics are a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic materials that use polymers as a main ingredient. Their plasticity makes it possible for plastics to be moulded, extruded or pressed into solid objects of various shapes. This adaptab ...

optical fiber An optical fiber, or optical fibre in Commonwealth English, is a flexible, transparency and translucency, transparent fiber made by Drawing (manufacturing), drawing glass (silica) or plastic to a diameter slightly thicker than that of a Hair ...

s. Ga_0.5In_0.5P is used as the high energy junction on double and triple junction photovoltaic cells grown on

. Recent years have shown GaInP/GaAs tandem solar cells with AM0 (sunlight incidence in space=1.35 kW/m²) efficiencies in excess of 25%. A different composition of GaInP, lattice matched to the underlying

GaInAs Gainas (Greek: Γαϊνάς) was a Gothic leader who served the Eastern Roman Empire as ''magister militum'' during the reigns of Theodosius I and Arcadius. Gainas began his military career as a common foot-soldier, but later commanded the barb ...

, is utilized as the high energy junction GaInP/GaInAs/Ge triple junction photovoltaic cells. Growth of GaInP by

epitaxy Epitaxy refers to a type of crystal growth or material deposition in which new crystalline layers are formed with one or more well-defined orientations with respect to the crystalline seed layer. The deposited crystalline film is called an epit ...

can be complicated by the tendency of GaInP to grow as an ordered material, rather than a truly random solid solution (i.e., a mixture). This changes the bandgap and the electronic and optical properties of the material.

References

* E.F. Schubert "Light emitting diodes",

External links

EMCORE Solar Cells

Spectrolab Solar Cells

Phosphides Indium compounds Gallium compounds III-V semiconductors III-V compounds Solar cells Light-emitting diode materials {{CMP-stub

See also

References

External links