AbstractWe are currently investigating the infrared (IR) optical properties of Cr doped ternary cadmium chalcogenides for potential applications in solid-state lasers and passive optical Qswitches. In this paper, we present compositional changes in the IR optical properties of Cr doped Cd1-xZnxTe single crystals with x=0.05, 0.1, and 0.2. Undoped CdZnTe crystals were grown by vertical Bridgman technique. Cr doping of CdZnTe was achieved through either in-situ doping or through a thermal diffusion process. For comparison, Cr: CdTe and Cr: ZnTe crystals were also prepared. The optical properties of Cr2+ ions were strongly dependent on the host composition and spectral blue shifts were observed with increasing Zn content in Cr: CdZnTe. The IR absorption peak of Cr2+ ions shifted from ∼1910 nm for Cr: CdTe to ∼1815 nm for Cr: Cd0.8Zn0.2Te. Less pronounced blue shifts were observed for the IR emission from Cr: CdZnTe crystals. The spectral shifts can be explained by the decrease in bond-length when going from CdTe to CdZnTe leading to an increased crystal-field effect experienced by Cr2+ ions. A slight broadening of the absorption and emission was also observed in ternary Cr: CdZnTe compounds compared to Cr: CdTe, which suggests that Cr2+ ions were incorporated in multiple lattice sites in CdZnTe. Moreover, the Cr2+ emission dynamics revealed a slightly non-exponential decay behavior for Cr: CdZnTe crystals, whereas the decay time of Cr: CdTe was single-exponential.
