Low Thermal Gradient Czochralski growth of large CdWO4 crystals and electronic properties of (010) cleaved surface

• Large high-quality CdWO4 crystals, up to 115 mm in diameter and mass up to 20 kg, have been grown.
• The high-purity cleaved CdWO4(010) surface has been studied by the XPS and XES methods.
• The principal contributors to the CdWO4 valence band are the Cd 4d, W 5d and O 2p states.

The crystal growth of large high-quality inclusion-free CdWO4 crystals, 110 mm in diameter and mass up to 20 kg, has been carried out by the Low Thermal Gradient Czochralski (LTG Cz) technique. The high-purity CdWO4(010) surface has been prepared by cleavage and high structural quality of the surface has been verified by RHEED, revealing a system of Kikuchi lines. The chemical state and electronic structure of the surface have been studied using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and X-ray emission spectroscopy (XES). The total and partial densities of states of the CdWO4 tungstate were calculated employing the first-principles full potential linearized augmented plane wave (FP-LAPW) method. The results indicate that the principal contributors to the valence band of CdWO4 are the Cd 4d, W 5d and O 2p states which contribute mainly at the bottom, in the central portion and at the top of the valence band, respectively, with also significant contributions of the mentioned states throughout the whole CdWO4 valence-band region. With respect to the occupation of the O 2p states, the results of the FP-LAPW calculations are confirmed by comparison on a common energy scale of the XPS valence-band spectrum and the XES band representing the energy distribution of the O 2p states in this compound. Additionally, the FP-LAPW data allow us to conclude that the CdWO4 tungstate is a non-direct semiconductor.

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