Production and investigation of the structure of thin zinc diphosphide layers

The authors have produced thin films of ZnP/sub 2/ by using thermal and laser evaporation of zinc diphosphide single crystals of tetragonal (alpha) and monoclinic (beta) modifications. As substrates freshly cleaved NaC1 single crystals, glass, single-crystal silicon plates, as well as silver plates were used. Application of laser radiation for evaporating zinc diphosphide is related to the possibility of producing films of stoichiometric composition corresponding to the starting composition. Evaporation was carried out by a GOS-301 laser in the free-generation mode. The structure of the amorphous films, produced by laser deposition, was studied by constructing the radial distribution curves of atoms. The obtained absorption spectra and radial-distribution curves of atoms showed that the model of the amorphous-film structure of alpha-ZnP/sub 2/ consists of spiral phosphorus chains connected by zinc atoms. In betaZnP/sub 2/ films phosphorus chains are connected to the P-P-pair bonds in the layer.