Vapour growth of SbSI on a seed

Abstract

Large isometric (up to 5 x 7 x 10 mm 3) single crystals of SbSI were grown from the vapour phase on seeds. The seeds were cut from a thick needle and were treated to remove the disturbed surface layers. Two growing techniques were compared: the method of a constant temperature gradient in conventional ampoule and the method of the reversal gradient in Scholz' ampoule geometry. It was found that in the former method growth in the c-direction (i.e., along the needle axis) proceeds only in whisker form, probably due to a poison impurity effect, whereas in the latter a bulk crystal was grown. This result is attributed to prevention of the poison effect during the reverse (i.e., etching) stage. Prismatic faces ( hk0) grow principally by a chain-type mechanism.