Electrical and Optical Properties of Intermetallic Compounds. I. Indium Antimonide

The conductivity and Hall coefficient of InSb have been measured over the temperature range 78^∘{}K to 750^∘{}K. At low temperatures an electron mobility of 30 000 cm²/volt-sec and a mobility ratio of 29 are observed. The effective mass of electrons is $0.04m$ and the width of the forbidden energy gap is 0.23 ev at T=0^∘K.Optical absorption studies have been made at temperatures between 13^∘{}K and 300^∘{}K. The position of the absorption edge of degenerate n-type samples depends on the impurity content and is in good agreement with Burstein's predictions.