The optoelectronic technology includes materials, devices, modules,
equipment and systems. The devices are made of materials with
certain properties (chemical, electrical, optical and mechanical properties). The modules are composed of devices suitable for specified
parameters (current, voltage, response speed or frequency). The
devices are operated by multiple functional modules in a certain
software environment. The equipment is constructed under a certain standard agreement. Therefore, the bottom and foundation of
photoelectric technology is photoelectric materials and devices.
Photoelectric materials are the foundation and pioneer of the
whole photoelectric industry. Photoelectric materials refer to materials that can generate, convert, transmit, process and store optical
signals. They mainly include semiconductor photoelectric materials
(III–V), organic semiconductor photoelectric materials, inorganic
crystals and quartz glass. Compound semiconductor materials such
as AlGaAs and InGaAsN can be formed by any combination of
III–V elements. Their lattice constants, bandgap width and absorption/emission wavelength are the three most important parameters
determining the photoelectric properties of compound semiconductor
materials. Photoelectric devices refer to devices that can realize the
conversion function between light radiation energy and signal or
the transmission, processing and storage of photoelectric signals.
At present, most commercial semiconductor optoelectronic devices
are made of GaAs-based, InP-based and GaN-based compound
semiconductor material systems. They are widely used in optical
communication network, photoelectric display, photoelectric storage,
photoelectric conversion and photoelectric detection.
