Indium arsenide, InAs, or indium monoarsenide, is a narrow-bandgap semiconductor composed of indium and arsenic. It has the appearance of grey

cubic crystal In crystallography, the cubic (or isometric) crystal system is a crystal system where the unit cell is in the shape of a cube. This is one of the most common and simplest shapes found in crystals and minerals. There are three main varieties of ...

s with a melting point of 942 °C. Indium arsenide is similar in properties to

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 ...

and is a

direct bandgap In semiconductor physics, the band gap of a semiconductor can be of two basic types, a direct band gap or an indirect band gap. The minimal-energy state in the conduction band and the maximal-energy state in the valence band are each characteriz ...

material, with a bandgap of 0.35 eV at room temperature. Indium arsenide is used for construction of infrared detectors, for the wavelength range of 1–3.8 µm. The detectors are usually

photovoltaic Photovoltaics (PV) is the conversion of light into electricity using semiconducting materials that exhibit the photovoltaic effect, a phenomenon studied in physics, photochemistry, and electrochemistry. The photovoltaic effect is commercially us ...

photodiode A photodiode is a light-sensitive semiconductor diode. It produces current when it absorbs photons. The package of a photodiode allows light (or infrared or ultraviolet radiation, or X-rays) to reach the sensitive part of the device. The packag ...

s. Cryogenically cooled detectors have lower noise, but InAs detectors can be used in higher-power applications at room temperature as well. Indium arsenide is also used for making of diode lasers. InAs is well known for its high electron mobility and narrow energy bandgap. It is widely used as terahertz radiation source as it is a strong photo-Dember emitter. The optoelectronic properties and phonon vibrations are slightly changed under the effect of temperature over the range form 0 K to 500 K., while the change is quite significant under the effect of pressure, for example InAs converted from a direct band gap semiconductor to an indirect band gap semiconductor.

Ternary and quaternary compounds

Indium arsenide is sometimes used together with

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 ca ...

. Alloyed with gallium arsenide it forms the ternary semiconductor indium gallium arsenide (In_xGa_(1-x)As), a material with band gap dependent on In/Ga ratio. Indium arsenide is sometimes alloyed with

and Indium antimonide to create a quaternary alloy with a range of band gaps that depend on the different concentration ratios of its components (InP, InAs and InSb), such quaternary alloys was under extensive theoretical studies to study the effect of pressure and temperature on its properties.

Quantum dot Quantum dots (QDs) are semiconductor particles a few nanometres in size, having light, optical and electronics, electronic properties that differ from those of larger particles as a result of quantum mechanics. They are a central topic in nanote ...

s can be formed in a monolayer of indium arsenide on

or gallium arsenide. The mismatches of lattice constants of the materials create tensions in the surface layer, which in turn leads to formation of the quantum dots. Quantum dots can also be formed in indium gallium arsenide, as indium arsenide dots sitting in the gallium arsenide matrix.

References

External links

Ioffe institute data archive entry

National Compound Semiconductor Roadmap
entry for InAs at ONR web site {{Semiconductor laser Arsenides Indium compounds III-V semiconductors III-V compounds Zincblende crystal structure