The compound tin telluride was prepared with the constituent elements (Sn and Te) by using the standard fusing technique. From x-ray studies the compound was identified as tin telluride. The detectors in the form of thin films were prepared by vacuum evaporation. Conductivity and photoconductivity measurements of the detectors were carried out in the temperature range of 130 to 300 K. These detectors were sensitized by baking them in air at a fixed temperature (413 K) for a fixed time (1800 sec). Resistivity measurements of the detectors with consecutive bakings were also carried out. The photosensitivity of the detectors increases as it is baked reaching an optimum value after which the sensitivity decreases whereas the resistivity of the detectors increases continuously with baking. It is observed that photosensitivity of the detectors increases with decrease of temperature. The increase of sensitivity with baking has been explained on the basis of modulation of barrier due to the development of photovoltage at SnTe and its oxide heterojunctions.

Ap-type pseudo-binary alloy semiconductor, Pb_0·3Sn_0·7Te, has been prepared fromp-type specimens of PbTe and SnTe and lattice constants determined with an accuracy of 0.0001 nm. Vacuum annealing of Pb_0·3Sn_0·7 Te reveals two new x-ray powder diffraction lines bearing indices (444) and (800), while others become more sharp, CuK_a-doublets get clearly resolved and the lattice constant is increased by ∼ 0·0002 nm. Slight deviation from Vegard’s law linearity is observed showing that the sample must be considered as ternary in nature. Thin films deposited on mica and glass substrates kept at room temperature are found to have a little higher SnTe content. The effective carrier concentration calculated from Hall measurements at room temperature is ∼ 3·4×10²⁶ m⁻³.

Thin films of synthesized Cd_0·8Zn_0·2Te have been deposited on glass substrate at different substrate temperatures. Different microstructural parameters like crystallite size, rms strain, dislocation density, stacking fault probability and stacking fault energy are determined by XRD, SEM, TEM and TED. XRD and XPS have been used to determine the composition. Variations of the microstructural parameters with film thickness and substrate temperature have been studied in order to obtain optimum growth condition for maximum particle size and least microstructural defects. An effort has been made to correlate the experimental results.

The compound tin selenide was prepared from the constituent elements (Sn and Se) using the standard fusing technique and from X-ray diffraction studies it was identified as tin selenide. Thin films of SnSe were obtained on thoroughly cleaned glass substrates by vacuum sublimation on substrates maintained at 301 K. The photoconductive relaxation of these films was studied with oxidation. The results have been explained with the help of grain boundary potential barrier model.