Effects of Vacancies on the Thermal Expansion of Mercury Indium Telluride Crystals

Abstract

The thermal expansion of a novel semiconductor material, mercury indium telluride (MIT) grown by vertical Bridgman (VB) method, was measured from room temperature till 573K by two methods, i.e. Macroscopic dilatometric and X-ray measurements. It is found that the macroscopic expansion is quite different from the expansion of the lattice (micro-expansion). The macroscopic expansion is lower than micro-expansion in the temperature range of 303-425.5K and has a minimum of -0.14% linear expansion, while the macro-expansion becomes larger than micro-expansion in the temperature higher than 425.5K. The former may be due to the effects of the existing neutral vacancies. The latter may result from the influence of thermal-activated vacancies on the lattice.