Indium phosphide is a binary semiconductor composed of indium and phosphorus. It is used in high-power and high-frequency electronics because of its superior electron velocity with respect to the more common semiconductors silicon and gallium arsenide. It also has a direct bandgap, making it useful for optoelectronics devices like laser diodes.
InP is also used as a substrate for epitaxial indium gallium arsenide based opto-electronic devices.
Indium phosphide also has one of the longest-lived optical phonons of any compound with the zincblende crystal structure.
This gives refractive index values rising from around 3.21 at 10 µm and 3.32 at 1.5 µm to 3.47 at 1.0 µm.