Aluminium gallium arsenide

Fixed

( 5.32 to 1.56 · x) g · cm -3 (at 300 K)

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Aluminum gallium arsenide ( Alx Ga1-x ) is a semiconductor having almost the same lattice constant as GaAs, but the larger band gap. The aluminum content x can be between 0 and 100% vary, causing the band gap between 1.42 eV (GaAs ) and 2.16 eV ( AlAs ) can be set. For x < 0.4 there is a direct band gap, otherwise there is an indirect band gap.

The ternary compound AlGaAs is a very important material system in fundamental research and industrial application. Because of the composition of the nearly independent lattice constant, it is with epitaxial techniques such as molecular beam epitaxy or metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy: possible to produce unstrained semiconductor heterostructures (german metal organic vapor phase epitaxy MOVPE).

The possibility to make the band gap different in different areas, is the basis for electronic components such as diode lasers, light emitting diodes, heterojunction bipolar transistors ( HBT) and high electron mobility transistors ( HEMT).

The formula AlGaAs is used as an abbreviation when the aluminum content is indeterminate.