Electrical and Optical Properties of Mercury Selenide (HgSe)

Abstract

HgSe single crystals are grown by zone melting. The compound crystallizes in the zinc‐blende structure and splits into (100) planes. For temperatures ranging from 90° to 500°K conductivity, Hall effect and thermoelectric power are measured; above 500°K evaporation of HgSe begins. The lowest carrier concentration of the crystals at 300°K is 3.5×10¹⁷ cm⁻³. Only n‐type conduction is found. The highest mobility at 300°K is 18 500 cm²/v sec. Magnetoresistance shows that the longitudinal effect is very small compared with the transverse. From the photo emf of the p‐n junction Se/HgSe crystal and from the absorption edge of layers the energy gap of 0.5 to 0.75 ev is obtained. Using the temf and the absorption an estimation of the effective mass leads to 0.04 to 0.07 m₀.