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 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. ...

, an alloy of gallium arsenide,

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 ...

, indium arsenide, or indium phosphide. This compound has applications in photonic devices, due to the ability to tailor its

band gap 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 ( ...

via changes in the alloy mole ratios, ''x'' and ''y''. Indium phosphide-based

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

, 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 occupy ...

waveguides A waveguide is a structure that guides waves, such as electromagnetic waves or sound, with minimal loss of energy by restricting the transmission of energy to one direction. Without the physical constraint of a waveguide, wave intensities de ...

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 those of Light, visible light. It is therefore invisible to the human eye. IR is generally understood to encompass wavelengths from ...

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" is an acronym for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation". The fi ...

transmitters, photodetectors and modulators) in C-band 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 ar ...

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 multiple ...

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

References

External links

* http://www.ioffe.ru/SVA/NSM/Semicond/GaInAsP/ III-V semiconductors Indium compounds Gallium compounds Arsenides Phosphides {{CMP-stub

See also

References

External links