Study on heat treatment induced stacking faults in CdZnTe crystals

In this paper, the formation mechanism and microstructure of heat treatment induced stacking faults in CdZnTe crystals are studied. It is shown that etched pits of the heat treatment induced stacking faults on {111} appear as straight lines oriented in three directions, which across each other with the angle of 120° or 60°. The formation of the heat treatment induced stacking faults are related to the stress induced from the thermo-migration of the Te-rich phases in the CdZnTe crystals, redundant Te inserted in the perfect-crystal layer sequence, and destroyed the continuity of the crystal. The rims of the induced stacking faults are composed of Frank dislocations.