Thermomigration of tellurium precipitates in CdZnTe crystals grown by vertical bridgman method

Te precipitates in CdZnTe have been characterized by x-ray diffraction at room and higher temperatures. From the x-ray results at room temperature, it has been confirmed that Te precipitates in CdZnTe have the same structural phase as observed in elemental Te under high pressure. The x-ray results at higher temperature indicate that Te precipitates melt around 440°C. CdZnTe samples containing Te precipitates have been annealed at temperatures below and above 440°C with thermal gradient of ∼70°C/cm. Results of the observation with infrared microscope before and after the annealings indicate distinct occurrence of thermomigration of Te precipitates in samples annealed at temperature above 440°C compared with ones annealed at temperature below 440°C. Thermomigration velocity obtained from these results is ∼50 μm/h. The average value for the effective diffusion coefficient of the metallic atoms in Te precipitates calculated by using the thermomigration velocity is ∼3 x 10⁻⁵ cm²/s.