The elastic constants and thermal expansion of single-crystal CdTe

Abstract

The elastic constants and thermal expansion of single-crystal CdTe have been measured in the temperature range 4·2-300 K. The values of elastic constants obtained at 298 K were C11=5·38×1010 N m−2, C12=3·74×1010 N m−2 and C44=2·018×1010 N m−2. Their temperature variation is in good agreement with Vekilov and Rusakov's (1971) values and the temperature dependence of the thermal expansion is similar to the other measurements in the literature. An anomaly in both parameters is observed, which has hitherto not been reported, and is tentatively attributed to a change in ionicity. The Debye temperature at 0 K is calculated from the elastic constants and a value of 162·7 K obtained.