Study on the growth and thermal characteristics of mercury indium telluride crystals

Hg(3−3x)In2xTe3 (MIT) (x = 0.5) crystals with high quality have been grown by the vertical Bridgman (VB) method. The thermal characteristics of the as-grown crystals were investigated by using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) in open system and in sealed vacuum condition, respectively. The results show that in open system MIT crystals has good thermal stability in the temperature range between room temperature and 387.9 °C, while Hg in MIT crystal nearly completely escapes above 387.9 °C. The melting point of MIT crystals is determined to be about 709.3 °C. The thermal expansion measurements of MIT crystals indicate that MIT material has a ∼0.14% abnormal shrinkage between 30 °C and 85 °C and an order–disorder phase transition at ∼290 °C. The density of MIT material in the temperature range of 30–400 °C has a maximum of 6.274 g cm−3.