Researchers have been exploring materials beyond silicon for semiconductor applications, however, carbon-based crystals such as diamond often have drawbacks, including high cost, slow synthesis rates, low quality and difficult integration with semiconductors. Boron arsenide was recently discovered as a new semiconductor material with massive potential due to its ultrahigh thermal conductivity, making it an attractive candidate in heat dissipation technologies for modern electronics and photonics.
Boron arsenide possesses a thermal conductivity of 1300 W/mK, higher than most common semiconductors and metals. However, previous studies found the synthesis of high quality boron arsenide crystals to be difficult. In the latest paper, Kang et al. developed a method to grow boron arsenide crystals with undetectable defects.
The researchers characterized the material and measured the optical, mechanical and thermal properties of boron arsenide that have not been experimentally studied before. The authors also examined the bandgap, optical refractive index, elastic modulus, shear modulus, Poisson’s ratio, thermal expansion coefficient, and heat capacity of cubic boron arsenide. They used several different methods to gather this information including light-absorption, Fabry-Pérot interference, pico-ultrasonics, and temperature dependent X-ray diffraction.
“This study reports experimental values for the basic properties of boron arsenide, and importantly, aims to inspire further research to develop this new semiconductor for broad applications in electronics, photonics, and mechanics,” author Yongjie Hu said.
Understanding these properties is essential to future research in design and integration, as well as device applications. The authors aim to build a database of information on the properties of boron arsenide.
Source: “Basic physical properties of cubic boron arsenide,” by Joon Sang Kang, Man Li, Huan Wu, Huuduy Nguyen, and Yongjie Hu, Applied Physics Letters (2019). The article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5116025.
