Compound semiconductor

A compound semiconductor is a semiconductor compound composed of elements from two or more different groups of the periodic table. These semiconductors typically form in groups 13–15 (old groups III–V), for example of elements from group 13 (old group III, boron, aluminium, gallium, indium) and from group 15 (old group V, nitrogen, phosphorus, arsenic, antimony, bismuth). The range of possible formulae is quite broad because these elements can form binary (two elements, e.g. gallium(III) arsenide (GaAs)), ternary (three elements, e.g. indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs)) and quaternary (four elements, e.g. aluminium gallium indium phosphide (AlInGaP)) alloys.

Examples

• Gallium nitride
• Gallium(III) arsenide
• Indium arsenide
• Zinc selenide
• Zinc sulfide
• Silicon carbide
• Indium(III) selenide
• Cadmium sulfide

For compound families and other examples see list of semiconductor materials.

Fabrication

Metalorganic vapour phase epitaxy (MOVPE) is the most popular deposition technology for the formation of compound semiconducting thin films for devices. It uses ultrapure metalorganics and/or hydrides as precursor source materials in an ambient gas such as hydrogen.

Other techniques of choice include:

• Molecular beam epitaxy (MBE)
• Hydride vapour phase epitaxy (HVPE)
• Liquid phase epitaxy (LPE)
• Metal-organic molecular beam epitaxy (MOMBE)
• Atomic layer deposition (ALD)