Synthesis of high-quality AgGaSe2 polycrystalline material by the melt temperature oscillation method

The melt temperature oscillation method (MTOM) has been used to synthesize high-quality AgGaSe2 polycrystalline materials. The mechanism and advantages of MTOM for synthesizing a single phase of AgGaSe2 are discussed. It is found that the polycrystalline material synthesized by MTOM is pure single phase, is free of interior voids and has a high mass density, which is better than that synthesized by the conventional method. The crack-free, as-grown single crystal of AgGaSe2 grown using polycrystalline materials by MTOM has a high infrared transmission (62.4% at 10.6 mu m), which is greater than that of the as-grown crystal synthesized using polycrystalline materials by the conventional method, even after the annealing treatment. MTOM is a new, effective method for synthesizing high-quality polycrystalline materials.