Grouping of semiconductor materials by degree of atomic structure disorder

Abstract

The first practical application of a semiconductor device occurred at the beginning of last century, when a metal-semiconductor contact point was used to demodulate radio signal. However, development of the band structure theory (A. Wilson, 1931) led to explosive development of solid-state electronics, creation of integrated circuits, increasing the degree of integration in accordance with Moore's Law along with a corresponding decrease in the sizes of elements. General direction in the development of solid-state electronics focused on manufacture of devices based on single crystals and on the enhancement of the crystal’s structure, since the band structure theory was based on presence of translational symmetry of crystal lattice.