Properties of gallium arsenide

Gallium pnictides

Gallium's main use is in semiconductor technology. For example, GaAs and related compounds can convert electricity directly into coherent light (laser diodes) and is employed in electroluminescent light-emitting diodes (LED's); it is also used for doping other semiconductors and in solid-state devices such as heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) and high power high speed metal semiconductor field effect transistors (MESFETs). The compound MgGa ₂ O ₄ is used in ultraviolet-activated powders as a brilliant green phosphor used in Xerox copying machines. Minor uses are as high-temperature liquid seals, manometric fluids and heat-transfer media, and for low-temperature solders.

Undoubtedly the binary compounds of gallium with the most industrial interest are those of the Group 15 (V) elements, GaE (E = N, P, As, Sb). The compounds which gallium forms with nitrogen, phosphorus, arsenic, and antimony are isoelectronic with the Group 14 elements. There has been considerable interest, particularly in the physical properties of these compounds, since 1952 when Welker first showed that they had semiconducting properties analogous to those of silicon and germanium.

Gallium phosphide, arsenide, and antimonide can all be prepared by direct reaction of the elements; this is normally done in sealed silica tubes or in a graphite crucible under hydrogen. Phase diagram data is hard to obtain in the gallium-phosphorus system because of loss of phosphorus from the bulk material at elevated temperatures. Thus, GaP has a vapor pressure of more than 13.5 atm at its melting point; as compared to 0.89 atm for GaAs. The physical properties of these three compounds are compared with those of the nitride in [link] . All three adopt the zinc blende crystal structure and are more highly conducting than gallium nitride.

Gallium arsenide versus silicon

Gallium arsenide is a compound semiconductor with a combination of physical properties that has made it an attractive candidate for many electronic applications. From a comparison of various physical and electronic properties of GaAs with those of Si ( [link] ) the advantages of GaAs over Si can be readily ascertained. Unfortunately, the many desirable properties of gallium arsenide are offset to a great extent by a number of undesirable properties, which have limited the applications of GaAs based devices to date.