Growth and characterization of Tl3InSe4 single crystals

Tl3InSe4 single crystal has been successfully prepared by the Bridgman crystal growth technique. The crystal that is reported for the first time is found to be of tetragonal structure with lattice parameters of a=0.8035 and c=0.6883 nm. The electrical resistivity and Hall effect measurements on the crystal revealed a conductivity type conversion from p- to n-type at a critical temperature of 283 K. The electron to hole mobility ratio is found to be 1.10. The analysis of the temperature-dependent electrical resistivity, Hall coefficient and carrier concentration data reveals the extrinsic type of conduction with donor impurity levels that behave as acceptor levels when are empty. The data analysis allowed the calculation of the hole and the electron effective masses as 0.654m(0) and 0.119m(0), respectively. In addition, the temperature-dependent Hall mobility in the n-region is found to be limited by the electron-phonon short-range interactions scattering with an electron-phonon coupling constant of 0.21. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.