Abstract
A lattice thermal expansion study of cubic CdTe
0.9Se
0.1 solid solution was carried out by high temperature X-ray powder diffraction technique (HTXRD) from room temperature to 773
K. An analytical least squares method for precise determination of the lattice constant for cubic crystals using a standard reference material as an external standard 2
θ-calibrant was used in this investigation. The best estimated value of the lattice constant (
a) for CdTe
0.9Se
0.1 was determined to be 6.441 (2) Å at 298
K. This value gradually increased to 6.457 (2) Å at 773
K. A similar trend was observed in the unit cell volume, which increased from 267.2(2) Å
3 to 269.3(2) Å
3 as the temperature changed from RT to 773
K. The thermal expansion coefficient was found to be 3.91 × 10
−6
K
−1 at 298
K and continuously increased to 9.73 × 10
−6
K
−1 at 773
K.