Cadmium Telluride vs. Gallium Arsenide
Both cadmium telluride and gallium arsenide are non-glass optical ceramics.
For each property being compared, the top bar is cadmium telluride and the bottom bar is gallium arsenide.
Metric UnitsUS Customary Units
Mechanical Properties
| Elastic (Young's, Tensile) Modulus, GPa | 45 | |
| 85 |
| Knoop Hardness | 45 | |
| 750 |
| Poisson's Ratio | 0.41 | |
| 0.31 |
Thermal Properties
| Melting Onset (Solidus), °C | 1090 | |
| 1400 |
| Specific Heat Capacity, J/kg-K | 210 | |
| 360 |
| Thermal Conductivity, W/m-K | 5.0 | |
| 47 |
| Thermal Expansion, µm/m-K | 5.9 | |
| 5.6 |
Otherwise Unclassified Properties
| Density, g/cm3 | 5.9 | |
| 5.3 |
| Light Transmission Range, µm | 1.0 to 25 | |
| 1.0 to 16 |
| Refractive Index | 2.6 | |
| 3.4 |
Common Calculations
| Stiffness to Weight: Axial, points | 4.3 | |
| 8.9 |
| Stiffness to Weight: Bending, points | 20 | |
| 28 |
| Thermal Diffusivity, mm2/s | 4.1 | |
| 25 |