Gallium Nitride (GaN) Gallium nitride is a binary inorganic compound of gallium and nitrogen.

It has been commonly used in light-emitting diodes since 1990. The compound is a very hard material that has a Wurtzite crystal structure. Its wide band gap of 3.4 electronvolts affords it special properties for applications in optoelectronic, high-power and high-frequency devices. Its sensitivity to ionizing radiation is low (like other group III nitrides), making it a suitable material to make solar cell arrays for satellites. Because GaN transistors can operate at much hotter temperatures and work at much higher voltages than gallium arsenide transistors, they make ideal power amplifiers at microwave frequencies. It is an important wide bandgap semiconductor with a band gap of 3.39 electronvolts at 300 kelvins. Gallium nitride is a very hard, mechanically stable material with high heat capacity.It is widely used in the production of LEDs, diode lasers, microwave transistors. High quality crystalline gallium nitride can be obtained by low temperature deposited buffer layer technology. This high quality crystalline gallium nitride led to the discovery of p-type GaN, p-n junction blue/UV-LEDs and room-temperature emission (necessary for laser action). This has led to the commercialization of high-performance blue LEDs and longlifetime violet-laser diodes, and to the development of nitride-based devices such as UV detectors and high-speed field-effect transistors. High-brightness GaN LEDs completed the range of primary colors, and made applications such as visible fullcolor LED displays. Group III nitride semiconductors are in general recognized as one of the most promising materials to fabricate optical devices in the visible shortwavelength and UV region. Potential markets for high-power/high-frequency devices based on GaN include microwave radio-frequency power amplifiers and high-voltage switching devices for power grids. The large band gap means that the performance of GaN transistors is maintained up to higher temperatures than silicon transistors. Gallium nitride was first experimentally demonstrated in 1993, and is still actively developed.