High compositional homogeneity of CdTexSe1−x crystals grown by the Bridgman method

We obtained high-quality CdTexSe1−x (CdTeSe) crystals from ingots grown by the vertical Bridgman technique. The compositional uniformity of the ingots was evaluated by X-ray fluorescence at BNL’s National Synchrotron Light Source X27A beam line. The compositional homogeneity was highly uniform throughout the ingot, and the effective segregation coefficient of Se was ∼1.0. This high uniformity offers potential opportunity to enhance the yield of the materials for both infrared substrate and radiation-detector applications, so greatly lowering the cost of production and also offering us the prospect to grow large-diameter ingots for use as large-area substrates and for producing higher efficiency gamma-ray detectors. The concentration of secondary phases was found to be much lower, by eight- to ten fold compared to that of conventional CdxZn1−xTe (CdZnTe or CZT).