Effects of growth technique on the microstructure of CuInSe2 ternary semiconductor compound

Abstract

X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometer (EDXRF) are employed to investigate the microstructure of bulk CuInSe2 specimens grown through the Bridgman technique and traveling heater process, respectively. We investigate the lattice parameters, grain sizes, and microstrains of the two grown samples. For a crystal grown by the vertical Bridgeman method, the vacancy VCu serves as an acceptor, resulting in p-type conduction, whereas the vacancy VSe expected to serve as a donor, occurring in n-type conduction for the crystal grown via the traveling heater technique. The concentration of crystal grown via the VBM is determined to be p-type, whereas the concentration of that grown via the THM is n-type. Concerning CuInSe2 crystal, the determined crystallite sizes obtained to be 165 and 182 nm for the VBM and THM, respectively.

Keywords

• Condensed matter physics
• Materials science
• Chalcopyrite
• Microstructure
• Grain size
• Microstrain