Growth of CdTe by solvent evaporation

Recent improvements to the Solvent Evaporation (SE) process are described. It is shown that good crystallinity is achievable provided that the solid-liquid interface is convex with respect to the solid and that the pyrolysed carbon coating of the ampoule adheres firmly to the wall. Breakdown of the coating leads to carbon-rich inclusions in the material and to dissolved carbon in the crystal lattice. C-V measurements indicate that carbon-rich areas are higher n-type than carbon-free regions, suggesting that carbon is a residual donor impurity in CdTe.