Indium phosphide (InP) is a semiconductor composed of indium and phosphorus. It is used in high-power and high-frequency electronics because of its superior electron velocity with respect to the more common semiconductors silicon and gallium arsenide. It also has a direct bandgap, making it useful for optoelectronics devices like laser diodes.

Properties

General
Name	Indium phosphide
Chemical Formula	InP
Appearance	Dark gray cubic crystals
Structure
Formula weight	145.79 amu
Lattice constant	0.58687 nm
Crystal structure	Zincblende
Physical
State of matter at STP	solid
Melting point at SP	1333 K
Boiling point at SP	?
Specific gravity	4.81
Electronic
Band gap at 300K	1.344 eV
Electron effective mass	0.073 me
Hole effective mass	0.64 me
Electron mobility at 300 K	0.46 m2/V·s
Hole mobility at 300 K	0.015 m2/V·s
Precautions
Toxic	?
Decompostion products	?
SI units were used where possible.

Indium phosphide also has one of the longest-lived optical phonons of any compound with the zincblende crystal structure.

The Sellmeier equation that describes how the optical refractive index for indium phosphide depends on wavelength is given by:

<math> n^2(\lambda) = 1 + 7.255 + \frac{2.316 \lambda^2 }{ \lambda^2 - 0.6263^2} + \frac{2.765 \lambda^2 }{ \lambda^2 - 32.935^2} <math>

where λ is the wavelength in micrometres.

external links

• Extensive site on the physical properties of indium phosphide (http://www.ioffe.ru/SVA/NSM/Semicond/InP/index.html)