ACTA

Low-Temperature Neutron Diffraction in the (Pb,Cd)Te Solid Solution Containing 2.2% of Cd

R. Kuna^a, X. Fabrèges^b, S. Petit^b, R. Minikayev^a, J. Korczak^a, A. Szczerbakow^a, W. Szuszkiewicz^{a, c}
^aInstitute of Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Aleja Lotnikow 32/46, PL-02668 Warsaw, Poland
^bLaboratoire Léon Brillouin, CEA Saclay, F-91191 Gif-sur Yvette, France
^cFaculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Rzeszów, S. Pigonia 1, PL-35310 Rzeszów, Poland

Full Text PDF

The (Pb,Cd)Te solid solution forms a metastable single crystals for a solution containing more than 1% of CdTe due to its very low solubility in PbTe. A possible presence of a phase transitions at low temperatures (like, e.g., that occurring in the (Pb,Ge)Te solid solution starting from 1% of Ge) which could influence the physical properties of (Pb,Cd)Te system was never checked. In order to verify this possibility the neutron diffraction studies were performed in the temperature range from 21 K to 39 K in the single crystal of (Pb,Cd)Te solid solution with 2.2% of CdTe grown by self-selecting vapour growth method and characterized by powder X-ray diffraction. The (Pb,Cd)Te sample was measured using the four-circle diffractometer installed at a hot neutron source (λ=0.83 Å). The possible transition does not take place to the lowest investigated temperature and the FWHM of Bragg peaks remains fixed in all temperature range under studies.

DOI:10.12693/APhysPolA.134.944
topics: IV-VI semiconducting compound, neutron diffraction, phase transition