Germanium: A Semiconductor

"A semiconductor is a material with an electrical conductivity that is intermediate between that of an insulator and a conductor... A semiconductor behaves as an insulator at very low temperatures, and has an appreciable electrical conductivity at room temperature although much lower conductivity than a conductor."

Germanium is a semiconductor, with electrical properties between those of a metal and an insulator. Due to the large number of organometallic compounds it forms, it is an important semiconductor material used in transistors.

Symbol: Ge
Atomic Number: 32
In its pure state, this metalloid is crystalline, brittle and retains its lustre in air at room temperature. It is a lustrous, hard, silver-white metalloid that is chemically similar to tin and has the same crystal structure as diamond.

In 1871 germanium (Latin Germania for Germany) was one of the elements that Dmitri Mendeleev predicted to exist as a missing analogue of the silicon group (Mendeleev called it "ekasilicon"). The existence of this element was proven by Clemens Winkler in 1886.

Unlike most semiconductors, germanium has a small band gap, allowing it to efficiently respond to infrared light. It is therefore used in infrared spectroscopes and other optical equipment which require extremely sensitive infrared detectors. Its refraction and dispersion properties make germanium useful in wide-angle camera lenses and in microscope objective lenses. Germanium transistors are still used in some stompboxes by musicians who wish to reproduce the distinctive tonal character of the "fuzz"-tone from the early rock and roll era.