Recognition and Classification of Semiconducting Compounds with Tetrahedral sp3 Bonds

In previous publications we have shown how certain conditions are always fulfilled in the chemical bonding of an intrinsic elemental or compound semiconductor. These conditions are said to specify a ``semiconducting bond'' and this concept has proved useful in explaining and predicting the occurrence of semiconductivity in substances. We now extend the use of this concept in giving a systematic classification of a large group of compounds in which the well-known sp3 tetrahedral bonds occur and whose structures are closely related to the zinc blende and wurtzite lattices. This treatment has led to the discovery that many compounds, whose electrical properties have not previously been examined, are indeed semiconductors.