AlGaN, Take Me Away

Time for Wiki Wednesday.

You know - you go to Wikipedia, you click on "random article," you report on the outcome.

Here's my random Wiki Wednesday find for this week:

Aluminum gallium nitride

Aluminum gallium nitride (AlGaN) is a semiconductor material. It is an alloy of aluminum nitride and gallium nitride.

AlGaN is used to manufacture light-emitting diodes operating in blue to ultraviolet region, where wavelengths down to 250 nm (far UV) were achieved. It is also used in blue semiconductor lasers. It is also used in detectors of ultraviolet radiation, and in AlGaN/GaN HEMT transistors.

AlGaN is often used together with gallium nitride or aluminum nitride, forming heterojunctions.

AlGaN layers can be also grown on sapphire.

Is it just me, or does anyone else think "heterojunctions" sound like the polar opposite of "civil unions?"

Comments

[Karen]

Sing along: "Heterojunction, what's your function?"