B. R. Arbada, U. R. Dappadwad and V. M. Bhuse
The Cadmium mercury chalcogenides (CMC’s) have been considered as an important material for use in optoelectronic devices. These compounds, however, possess limitations on the ultimate efficiency and stability of devices due to weak nature of Hg-Se bond. The major consequences faced are lattice instability, poor mechanical, optical and electrical properties. The replacement of ‘cadmium’ by ‘zinc’ has been shown to enhance overall stability and better optoelectronic properties. In view of this, we report, a simple, aqueous chemical route to grow a full range of Zn1-XHgXSe(x= 0-1) alloy semiconductor system on glass substrate at room temperature with special emphasis on their structural, optical and electrical properties. The XRD study revealed the polycrystalline nature for all compositions in a single cubic phase. The film were uniform, adherent, with color varying from faint yellow(for ZnSe) to dark red(for HgSe) as mercury content was increased. The lattice constant registers a small deviation in Vegard’s law for compositions (x) ≥ 0.6; while the band gaps were found to bow above the linearity function. The electrical conductivity and activation energies were found to a function of composition, x. Chemical deposition system is useful in depositing ZMS film of desired properties by careful selection of compositional parameter (x).
