Reduction of Te inclusions in ZnTe single crystals by thermal annealing

ZnTe crystals grown from the melt have Te inclusions. The wafer annealing under Zn pressure was carried out to reduce Te inclusions in ZnTe wafers. It was found that the cyclic annealing process, where heating and cooling was done cyclically over a temperature range of several tens of degrees, was effective to annihilate the Te inclusions. We obtained the inclusion-free ZnTe crystals by optimising the temperature cycling condition. (© 2004 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)