Introduction

The interest in III-N materials (stimulated by pioneering work of Pankove, Akasaki, Nakamura, and many others) dates back to 1970s. High-power microwave/millimeter wave and optoelectronic applications of nitrides have emerged, with nitride-based visible LEDs already accounting for billion dollar markets. These applications demand the improved materials quality and better device design, which in turn require the knowledge of nitride materials parameters.

Our recent book published in 20011 has listed important nitride parameters. However, intensive research on properties and device applications is continuing albeit with a saturated rate of growth (see Fig. 1.). The new results require revisions of the important parameters for these materials (the energy gap of InN being a dramatic example25.) The goal of this Chapter is to provide such an update.

Fig. 1: Number of publication related to III-N materials versus year.

The discussion of semiconductor materials properties at a very basic level is given in2 Introduction to Electronic Devices , which also contains convenient tables summarizing the basic semiconductor equations and the definitions of basic semiconductor parameters. More detailed information is given in the two volumes Survey of Semiconductor Physics by Karl Boer3.

In certain cases, tensor parameters (such piezoelectric constants or elastic modulus) might be...