Effect of off-stoichiometry on properties of tin selenide crystals

The tin selenide crystals with different proportions of Sn and Se were grown by a direct vapour-transport technique. The layer by layer growth of crystals from the vapour phase was promoted by screw dislocation mechanism. The powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) shows good crystallinity of grown compound. The XRD patterns of grown compounds are well-indexed to orthorhombic structure. In the off-stoichiometric compound, evidence of $$\hbox {SnSe}_{{2}}$$ secondary phase is observed due to excess of selenium. The morphological investigations were carried out using a Carl Zeiss optical microscope. The electron diffraction was also recorded from tiny flakes using a transmission electron microscope. The electrical resistivity both parallel and perpendicular to the c-axis was measured in the temperature range of 303–490 K and activation energy was also calculated using Arrhenius relation. The electrical study depicts the extrinsic semiconducting nature of grown compositions.