Thermal vibrational amplitudes of constituent atoms and mechanical stability in ZnxCd1-xTe and Hg1-yCdyTe.

Abstract

Root-mean-square (rms) displacements of the constituent atoms in the ${\mathrm{Zn}}_{\mathit{x}}$${\mathrm{Cd}}_{1\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}\mathit{x}}$Te (x=0,0.04,0.077,0.114,0.20,0.31) and ${\mathrm{Hg}}_{1\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}\mathit{y}}$${\mathrm{Cd}}_{\mathit{y}}$Te (y=0,0.24,0.4,0.7) alloys are determined by ion channeling experiments combined with particle-induced x-ray emission and Rutherford backscattering. The experimental channeling angular scan data are interpreted by using a recently developed method, which uses a Monte Carlo simulation program of the channeling process, and includes a structural model for the ternary alloys based on extended x-ray-absorption fine-structure results on nearest-neighbor distances. Temperature-dependent measurements show that the experimentally deduced atomic displacements do not contain static contributions but they are rather due to the thermal vibrational amplitudes of the atoms.