  We show that the middle-range exchange-correlation hybrid of Henderson,
Izmaylov, Scuseria and Savin (HISS) performs extremely well for elemental and
binary semiconductors with narrow or visible spectrum band gaps, as well as
some wider gap or more ionic systems used commercially. The lattice parameters
are superior to those predicted by the screened hybrid functional of Heyd,
Scuseria and Ernzerhof (HSE), and provide a significant improvement over
geometries predicted by semilocal functionals. HISS also yields band gaps
superior to those produced by functionals developed specifically for the solid
state. Timings indicate that HISS is more computationally efficient than HSE,
implying that the high quality lattice constants coupled with improved optical
band gap predictions render HISS a useful adjunct to HSE in the modeling of
geometry-sensitive semiconductors.
