Influence of annealing on optical and electrical properties of ZnGeP2 single crystals

Abstract

A high quality ZnGeP2 (ZGP) single crystal 22mm in diameter and 70mm in length was grown by a modified vertical Bridgman method. The as-grown and annealed crystals were characterized using XRD, IR spectrophotometers, positron annihilation lifetime (PAL), Hall Effect and resistivity measurements. It is found that there was a cleavage face {204} along the appearance face on the as-grown crystal. After annealing the crystal, the width of XRD rocking curve of the annealed crystal was decreased, the intensity was high and the symmetry was better than that of the as-grown crystal. The IR transmission spectrum indicated that annealing decreases significantly the optical absorption in the region of 1.3–2.6μm and transmittance exceeds 57% in the range of 3–8μm. PAL results showed that single zinc vacancies were unstable since they aggregated with each other after annealing under zinc vapor at 500°C, and both the number of single zinc vacancy and the size of large vacancy decreased under cover-up with ZGP polycrystalline powder at 600°C. The Hall effect and resistivity measurement results showed that the ZGP crystal has p-type conductivity; after annealing with ZGP polycrystalline powder the carrier concentration was decreased to 1010cm−3 and resistivity was increased to 108Ωcm. The above mentioned results demonstrated that annealing treatment improved significantly the optical quality of as-grown ZGP crystal; the proposed annealing process is effective and a promising new method to decrease of the point defects in the ZGP crystal.