The growth of a cubic, single phase, Cd0.6Mn0.4Te single crystal by the vertical gradient freeze method

The growth of CdMnTe single crystals faces some difficulties due to the phase transition in the solid state at high temperatures, just after solidification. To overcome this problem, it has been suggested to grow the crystals from a Te-rich solution by the traveling heater method at a lower temperature than that of growth from the melt, or alternatively to grow the crystal from the melt at high axial thermal gradient near the interface. In this paper, we present for the first time the growth of cubic, single phase, Cd x Mn 1− x Te single crystals by the vertical gradient freeze technique under a very low axial thermal gradient in the melt (3°C/cm) and high manganese content ( x ≈ 40%). The solidification stage is characterized by a rapid cooling of the crystal through the phase transition temperature region, followed by annealing at about 800°C. The crystal exhibits a very high crystalline perfection, as measured by the double-crystal X-ray rocking curves with a full width at half maximum of 30 arc sec and low optical losses of about 1 dB/mm between 650 and 820 nm with λ-cutoff at 630 nm. Further magneto-optical properties are currently examined for a possible application in devices.