Properties of Tl4Se3S single crystals and characterization of Ag/Tl4Se3S Schottky barrier diodes

The main physical properties of Tl4Se3S single crystals were investigated for the first time. Particularly, the crystal data, Debye temperature, dark electrical resistivity and Hall effect in addition to the temperature dependent current-voltage characteristics and photosensitivity of the Ag/Tl4Se3S Schottky barrier diode were studied. The X-ray diffraction patterns have revealed that the crystal exhibited a single phase of tetragonal structure belonging to the D-4h(18) - 14mcm space group. A Debye temperature of 100 K was calculated using the results of the X-ray diffraction analysis. The dark electrical resistivity and Hall-effect measurements indicated that the samples exhibits p-type conduction with an electrical resistivity, carrier concentration and Hall mobility of 6.20 x 10(3) Omega cm, 1.16 x 10(12) cm(-3) and 873 cm(2) V-1 s(-1), respectively. The crystals were observed to have Schottky diode properties. The Ag/Tl4Se3S Schottky barrier device bias voltage was observed to depend on the crystal direction and on temperature. It was found that the calculated energy barrier height decreased and the diode ideality factor increased with temperature decreasing. The photosensitivity-light intensity dependence of this device was found to be linear reflecting the ability of using it in optoelectronics. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.