Most of the applications of semiconductors involve either photon absorption to form free carriers (photodetectors or solar cells) or the formation of photons by free carrier recombination (light emittiing diodes or lasers). Both kinds of applications require high quality single crystals having desirable dimensions, devoid of defects, grain boundaries, or impurities that act as electron scatterers, traps and non radiative recombination centers. As a consequence of the requirement of high quality, fabrication and growth conditions for the semiconductors must be carefully controlled for most applications. Hence single crystals of GeSe were grown by Direct Vapor Transport (DVT) technique, in a two zone horizontal furnace with temperature difference of 50 K between growth and source zones. The material crystallizes in the form of shining gray and platelets like crystals at the end of growth cycles. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) has been used for many years to evaluate thermal stability of material as it will determine the range of stable operation for a device made up out of these materials under investigation. Thermal characteristics of GeSe crystals were studied employing thermoanalytical techniques, viz. TGA and DTA. Thermal analysis experiments were carried out with constant heating rate of 10 °C/ min in N2. The objective of this study is to determine activation energy and other kinetic parameters of GeSe crystals. Broido and Coats-Redfern (C-R) methods are used to evaluate different kinetic parameters of GeSe crystals viz. activation energy, entropy, enthalpy, Gibbs mean free energy etc.
Erratum to âA comparison of thermal characteristics and kinetic parameters of trehalases from a thermophilic and a mesophilic fungusâ
