SURFACE CRACKING IN ZINC DIFFUSED CDTE

CdTe slices have been diffused in sealed silica capsules under conditi ons of saturated vapor pressure due to zinc in the temperature range 3 90-950 degrees C. All slices annealed with zinc a temperatures above 4 50 degrees C displayed extensive surface cracking both by slip along s pecific crystallographic planes and by brittle fracture, whereas below this temperature no such effects were detected, In addition, some sli ces diffused at 800 degrees C with small quantities of zinc, which was insufficient to maintain saturated vapor pressure throughout the diff usion experiment, did not show any cracks. The interpretation of this behavior can be divided into three temperature ranges and can be expla ined in terms of the critical resolved sheaf stress and the misfit rat io. This is discussed extensively in this paper.