Indium gallium arsenide

Indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs) (alternatively gallium indium arsenide) is a ternary alloy (chemical compound) of indium, gallium and arsenic. Indium and gallium are both from boron group (group III) of elements while arsenic is a pnictogen (group V) element. Thus alloys made of these chemical groups are referred to as "III-V" compounds. Because they are from the same group, indium and gallium have similar roles in chemical bonding. InGaAs is regarded as an alloy of gallium arsenide and indium arsenide with properties intermediate between the two depending on the proportion of gallium to indium. InGaAs is a semiconductor with applications in electronics and optoelectronics.

Nomenclature

Indium gallium arsenide is a popular designation for gallium-indium arsenide (GaInAs). InGaAs is a direct bandgap, pseudo-binary alloy composed of two III-V semiconducting materials: (GaAs)_X and (InAs)_1-X. The alloy is miscible over the entire compositional range from GaAs (bandgap = 1.42 eV at 300 K) to InAs (bandgap = 0.34 eV at 300 K).