Optical and electronic properties of compound semi-conductors

Abstract

From an empirical calculation of refractive indices, it is shown that between the single bond energy [ E s] and refractive indices there exists a correlation for the compound semi-conductors which can be expressed by a relation of the type: n 4[ E s −1] = 97. Utilizing the n values from the above equation, the average energy gap or Penn gap [ E p ] parameter is calculated. The electronic polarizability (α) is related to the Penn gap ( E p ) and valence electron plasmon energy (ħω p) by a relation of the type E p = h ̵ ω p (n 2 − 1) 1 2 and α = [ ( h ̵ ω p) 2S 0 ( h ̵ ω p) 2S 0 + 3E 2 p ] × M d × 0.4 × 10 −24 where S 0, M and d are constants for a particular semiconductor, molecular weight and density of a semi-conductor. In all cases, the calculated and literature values are in excellent agreement with each other.