Growth and structure of Cd1-xDyxTe crystals

CdTe crystals doped with dysprosium were grown by the vertical Bridgman method to explore the possibility of obtaining Cd1-xDyxTe ternary compound. The growth was carried out from the Cd1-xDyxTe pre-synthesized feeds with the charge composition in the range of x=0.001-0.05. The as-grown crystals were studied by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and optical spectroscopy. Experimental findings testify that the Cd1-xDyxTe crystals have the homogeneous cubic structure similar to CdTe in the narrow composition range of x approximate to 0-0.01. At higher compositions x >= 0.01, the crystals become a mixture of several phases such as CdTe host, Dy2Te3 textures and DyTe-rich inclusions. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.