Growth and structure of Cd1–xDyxTe crystals

Abstract CdTe crystals doped with dysprosium were grown by the vertical Bridgman method to explore the possibility of obtaining Cd 1− x Dy x Te ternary compound. The growth was carried out from the Cd 1− x Dy x Te 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 Cd 1− x Dy x Te crystals have the homogeneous cubic structure similar to CdTe in the narrow composition range of x ≈0–0.01. At higher compositions x ≥0.01, the crystals become a mixture of several phases such as CdTe host, Dy 2 Te 3 textures and DyTe-rich inclusions.