1. Materials and heterojunction physics

1.1 Materials for heterojunction electronic components

The large family of III-V semiconductors, of which GaAs, GaN and InP are only the best-known representatives in microelectronics, comprises alloys combining, in equal proportions, atoms from column III (Al, Ga, In...) and column V (N, P, As, Sb...) of Mendeleev's periodic table of elements. Their crystal structure usually takes the form of two face-centered cubic sub-lattices, made up of column III and column V atoms respectively, which interpenetrate to form a zinc-blende crystal. This type of crystal is analogous to the diamond lattice of silicon, from which it differs only in that the two sub-lattices here are made up of different atoms. A major exception is GaN and its alloys, whose most common crystal structure is a wurtzite...