A comparative study on surface morphology from the HgI2 semiconductors prepared by different techniques

The impurity effect in the surface morphology quality of HgI2 crystals was evaluated, aiming a future application of these crystals as room temperature radiation semiconductor detector. The crystals were purified and grown by two techniques: (1) physical vapor transport (PVT) and (2) saturated solution from dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) complexes. Systematic measurements were carried out for determining the stoichiometry, structure orientation, surface morphology and impurity of the crystal. The best quality of surface morphology was found for the crystals purified and grown by the PVT technique. Significant decrease in the impurity concentration was found, purifying the crystal by means of two successive growths by the PVT technique, while a Si contamination in the HgI2 crystal was observed, during its growth by the DMSO method. Thus, for DMSO technique was not possible to identify the peaks of the other trace elements present as impurities in the PVT crystal, due to the high intensity of the Si peak in the DMSO crystal. It was demonstrated the impurities affect significantly the surface morphology quality from the HgI2 crystal. Key Words: Semiconductor crystal, Radiation detector, Mercury Iodide crystal, surface morphology. (author)