Optical and electrical properties of vanadium-doped ZnTe crystals grown by the temperature gradient solution method

Vanadium-doped ZnTe (ZnTe:V) crystals 30 mm in diameter and 45 mm in length were grown by the temperature gradient solution growth method. The band gap of as-grown ZnTe:V crystals was estimated to be about 2.22 eV. Infrared spectra exhibit a mean transmittance of 50%-60% in the wavenumber range from 500 cm(-1) to 4000 cm(-1). Compared with the intrinsic ZnTe crystal, the resistivity of ZnTe:V is increased 6-7 orders of magnitude up to 10(9) Omega.cm and the carrier concentration reduced from 10(14) to 10(8) cm(-3). Accordingly, the THz detection sensitivity is also enhanced by 20%-30%. The improvements on the optical and electrical properties were attributed to the compensation of Zn vacancies by the vanadium element. (c) 2018 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement