Semiconducting and other major properties of gallium arsenide

Abstract

This review provides numerical and graphical information about many (but by no means all) of the physical and electronic properties of GaAs that are useful to those engaged in experimental research and development on this material. The emphasis is on properties of GaAs itself, and the host of effects associated with the presence of specific impurities and defects is excluded from coverage. The geometry of the sphalerite lattice and of the first Brillouin zone of reciprocal space are used to pave the way for material concerning elastic moduli, speeds of sound, and phonon dispersion curves. A section on thermal properties includes material on the phase diagram and liquidus curve, thermal expansion coefficient as a function of temperature, specific heat and equivalent Debye temperature behavior, and thermal conduction. The discussion of optical properties focusses on dispersion of the dielectric constant from low frequencies [κ0(300)=12.85] through the reststrahlen range to the intrinsic edge, and on the associated absorption and reflectance behavior. Experimental information concerning the valence and conduction band systems, and on the direct and indirect intrinsic gaps, is used to develop workable approximations for the statitistical weights Nv(T) and Nc(T), and for the intrinsic density. Experimental data concerning mobilities of holes and electrons are briefly reviewed, as is also the vn(E) characteristic for the conduction band system.