Photoacoustic investigations of beryllium containing wide gap II–VI mixed crystals

Abstract

Mixed crystals of II–VI binary compounds with Be chalcogenides make it possible to tune band gap energies and lattice constants of these materials by adjusting Be content in the alloy. The reduced ionic character of chemical bonds in Zn1−xBexSe leads to increased lattice rigidity. For this reason, beryllium containing II–VI semiconducting compounds may offer the possibility of achieving a significant impact on the defect propagation and therefore increasing the laser structure lifetime.The photoacoustic technique was used to investigate the properties of ZnxBe1−xSe mixed crystals as a function of composition. The Jackson–Amer model and Blonskij et al. method for piezoelectric detection were used to estimate the values of energy gaps and thermal diffusivities. An attempt to measure thermal diffusivity in liquid nitrogen temperature was made.