Effect of Cd content on the structural characteristic and some physical properties of Zn1-xCdxSe

The present work focuses on the structural, optical, and electrical properties of Zn1-xCdxSe (0.1 ≤x ≤0.25) compounds. The compounds were synthesized by solid state reaction. X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns confirm that the samples have cubic single phase (zinc-blende) crystal structure with space group F-43m. The crystal structural parameters were refined by the Rietveld method using the FullProf program. It was found that the lattice parameters increase linearly with increasing the Cd content and obeys Vegard's law. The refined values of the crystallite size and the bond lengths increase with increasing the Cd content. The energy band gap of the samples has been calculated and it was found that it decreased as Cd increased. The conductivity of the samples increases with increasing both of composition parameter x and temperature, and showing semiconducting behavior. (orig.)