Bridgman growth and defect characterization of large diameter mercury indium telluride crystals for near infrared detectors

Novel Hg₃In₂Te₆ (MIT) single crystals with 30 mm in diameter and 110 mm in length have been reproducibly grown by the vertical Bridgman (VB) method. The crystalline phase was confirmed by X-ray diffraction to be free of transformation. Rocking curves using a double-crystal X-ray diffractometer showed that the full widths at half maximum of the as-grown MIT crystals were in the range of 150-317 arc sec. The electrical resistivity, carrier density and mobility from Hall measurements at room temperature were 1.79×10³ Ω cm, 1.01×10¹³ cm^-3 and 3.44×10² cm² V^-1 s^-1, respectively. The existing defects in the as-grown MIT crystals were displayed and the average etch pits density (EPD) using the modified Chen etchant solution was (2-6)×10⁴ cm^-2 in the whole ingot.