Why is the band gap in alloys such as GaAs less?

Thread starter Engineer1
Start date May 1, 2019
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Band Band gap Electrical & electronic enging Gap Material science Semiconductor devices

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The discussion clarifies that the band gap in compound semiconductors like Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) is often greater than that in pure crystals such as Silicon and Germanium. Specifically, GaAs has a band gap of 1.43 eV, which surpasses Silicon's band gap of 1.14 eV. Additionally, Gallium Nitride (GaN) exhibits an even larger band gap of 3.4 eV. The assertion that pure crystals consistently have larger band gaps than compound semiconductors is incorrect.

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May 1, 2019

Engineer1

Gold Member

TL;DR: Why is band gap in alloys such as GaAs less in comparison with intrinsic semiconductor crystals, such as Silicon?

In pure crystals,such as,in silicon and germanium,the band gap is more than that in compound semiconductors,such as,GaAs.Why is that so.

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May 1, 2019

phyzguy

Science Advisor

This is simply wrong. Try looking at the table of band gaps at this Wikipedia page. Silicon is 1.14 eV. GaAs is 1.43 eV. GaN is 3.4 eV. Other compound semiconductors have band gaps less than silicon.