Syntheses and structures of CsHo3Te5 and Cs3Tm11Te18 and the electronic structure of CsHo3Te5

Single crystals of CsHo3Te5 and Cs3Tm11Te18 have been grown as byproducts in the synthesis of CsLnZnTe3 (Ln=Ho or Tm) through the reaction of Ln, Zn, and Te with a CsCl flux at 850 °C. The crystal structures have been determined from single-crystal X-ray diffraction data. CsHo3Te5 crystallizes in space group Pnma of the orthorhombic system whereas Cs3Tm11Te18 crystallizes in the space group C2/m of the monoclinic system. Each of the compounds adopts a three-dimensional structure; each possesses tunnels built from LnTe6 octahedra that are filled with Cs atoms. The pseudo-rectangular tunnel in CsHo3Te5 is large enough in cross-section to accommodate two symmetrically equivalent Cs atoms. In the Cs3Tm11Te18 structure there are two different sized tunnels: the smaller one is only large enough to host one Cs atom per unit cell whereas the larger one can accommodate two Cs atoms. The electronic structure of CsHo3Te5 was calculated. The band gap is estimated to be about 1.2 eV, consistent with the black color of the crystals.