Germanium wire is an important semiconductor material, which has extensive and important applications in semiconductor, aerospace measurement and control, nuclear physics detection, optical fiber communication, infrared optics, solar cells, chemical catalysts, biomedicine and other fields. According to the US Geological Survey data (2015), the proportion of global germanium end-users is as follows: fiber fiber 30%; Infrared fiber 20%; Polymerization catalyst 20%; Electronic and solar devices 15% and other (phosphors, metallurgy, and chemotherapy)15%.

Optical fiber

Germanium doped fiber has large capacity, small light loss, low dispersion, long transmission distance and free from environmental interference and other excellent characteristics, is the only fiber that can be applied in engineering at present, is the main body of optical communication network, in addition, GeCl4 is also used in high-speed fiber networks, links, fiber sensors, fiber guidance and fiber moorings, etc., in recent years, rapid development.

Infrared optics

Germanium, as an infrared optical material, has the advantages of high infrared refractive index, wide infrared transmittance band range, small absorption coefficient, low dispersion rate, easy processing, flash and corrosion. It is especially suitable for military and important civil thermal imager, infrared radar and other infrared optical device window, lens, prism and filter material. High purity germanium or lithium germanium used in astronomy gamma spectrometer, nuclear reaction spectrometer and plasma physics X-ray spectrometer; Si-Ge10 and germanium single crystal doped with mercury, cadmium, copper and gallium are used for infrared detectors.

Electronic solar component

Germanium semiconductor device is used as diode, crystal transistor and composite transistor, germanium semiconductor photoelectric device as photoelectric, Hall and piezoresistive effect sensor, as photoconductance effect radiation detector, etc., widely used in color TV, computer, telephone and high frequency equipment, germanium tube is especially suitable for high frequency high power devices, and operates normally under strong radiation and -40℃; Ge-Si and Ge-Te are used as thermal power generation for aerospace, satellite and space station starting power.