Semiconductors are not limited to Si, Ge and GaAs.Elemental C, Si, Ge, and a-Sn have the diamond structure, with each atom tetrahedrally bonded to its four nearest neighbors.Complementary pairs of elements form semiconductors that have the zinc blende structure. These AZ systems are closely related to the diamond structure in that each A has four Z atoms tetrahedrally bonded to it; and each Z atom has four A atoms tetrahedrally bonded to itA semiconductor can be created from many combinations of elements from Groups 13 and 15 (Group III A and VA) , from many combinations of elements from Groups 12 and 16 (Group IIB and VIA), and from many combinations of elements from Groups 11 and 17 (IB and VIIA), where the AZ structure is that of zinc blende with tetrahedral coordination numbers of 4 for A and Z atoms.
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