ABSTRACT
Compound semiconductors are composed of elements of either group III and group V (known as III-V semiconductors) or group II and group VI (known as II-VI semiconductors) as compared to elemental semiconductors which belong to group IV. Examples of III-V semiconductors are (B, Al, Ga, In) – (N, P, As, Sb) and their mixtures, whereas (Zn, Cd, Hg) – (O, S, Se, Te) and their mixtures are examples of II-VI semiconductors. Compound semiconductors are substitutional solid solutions, generally of the zinc blende (or wurtzite) crystal structure. The zinc blende (or wurtzite) structure consists of two inter-connected face centred cubic, fcc, (or hexagonal close packed, hcp) sublattices; one of which is occupied by group III (or group II) elements and the other by group V (or group VI) elements. These alloys have found use in or have the potential to be used in the fabrication of novel opto-electronic devices. Wu in a 2009 review article has stated that the market of opto-electronic devices has reached $20 billion a year and is expected to expand further (Wu 2009).
