Beyond silicon:the rise of compound semiconductors

Abstract This is a book about gallium nitride and its alloys. To those physicists, chemists, materials scientists, and technologists who are fortunate enough to be working with these materials at the present time, there can be no doubt that the nitrides are the most fascinating of all semiconductors. At the same time, the nitrides are the materials most likely to be exploited commercially in the years leading up to the millennium. Perhaps our degree of fascination is closely related to the marketability? After all, researchers are as aware as anyone of the commercial realities embedded in scientific activity. The purpose of this introductory chapter is to provide an answer to some basic questions concerning the place of nitrides among the families of semiconductors that lie beyond silicon.We should begin by noting that silicon is the prime semiconductor, accounting for an estimated 99% of commercial production, in terms of raw material (this is only an estimate: you could probably beat me down to 95% on a bad day) and some 90% of research and development costs. Silicon is an elemental semiconductor, from Group IV of the periodic table.