Thermal property of binary tetrahedral semiconductors

In this paper we present an expression relating the lattice thermal expansion coefficient α_L (10⁻⁶ K⁻¹) for the A^IIIB^V and A^IIB^VI semiconductors with the product of ionic charges (Z₁Z₂), melting temperature (T_m) and nearest neighbor distance d (Å). The lattice thermal expansion coefficient of these compounds exhibit a linear relationship when plotted on a log–log scale against the melting temperature (T_m), but fall on different straight lines according to the ionic charge product of the compounds. A good agreement has been found between the experimental and calculated values of the lattice thermal expansion coefficient for A^IIIB^V and A^IIB^VI semiconductors.