Effect of plastic deformation on the optical and electrical properties in Cd0.96Zn0.04Te single crystals

Using UV-visible, photoluminescence, electrical measurements and ab-initio calculations, we study the effect of introduced dislocations on the optical and electrical properties in Cd0.96Zn0.04Te crystals. To generate dislocations, a plastic deformation on the Cd(111) and Te(1¯1¯1¯) faces was induced. It is shown that the plastic deformation results in: i) a decrease in Zn concentration in the deformed regions, which is higher on the Cd face, ii) decrease in the band gap energy, iii) an increase of acceptor concentration, and iv) the leakage current is higher on the Te face. Calculation of barrier height has led to identify the dominant defect, which is the complex Cd vacancies, acceptor center [VCd, ACd] on the Cd face and VTe on the Te side, respectively. Electronic structure calculations based on full potential linearized augmented plane waves (FPLAPW) method were performed as well and have shown that the optical band gap energy decrease upon deformation can be understood by the decrease in Zn content in the deformed regions.