Diffusion Coefficient of Iron in ZnSe Polycrystals from Metal Phase for mid-IR Gain Medium Application

Abstract

Diffusion coefficient of Fe in polycrystalline host ZnSe as a mid-IR gain medium has been measured in the annealing temperature ranges of 850 to 950℃. The synthesis of the samples was carried out in quartz ampoule in which the Fe thin film deposited by physical vapor evaporation method on the ZnSe. One can realize that the diffusion coefficient strongly depends on the surface active surfactants through the cleaning process and the substrate temperature during the thin film deposition leading to 2.04×10 -9 cm²/s for Fe 2+ :ZnSe. The Annealing temperature dependence of the Fe ions diffusion in ZnSe was used to evaluate the activation energy, Ea=1.39 eV for diffusion and the pre-exponential factor D0 of 13.5 cm²/s.