Microstructural Analysis of AgIn5VI8 (VI: S, Se, Te) Ternary Semiconductors by X-Ray Diffraction

Abstract

This work is a study of the microstructural properties of the polycrystalline ternary compounds AgIn 5 S 8 , AgIn 5 Se 8 , and AgIn 5 Te 8 by X-ray diffraction technique (XRD). The full-width-half-maximum (FWHM) of the XRD profile is measured as function of the diffraction angle and used to estimate the microstructural parameters. In general, a microstructural characterization by XRD is principally performed by Strain/Size analysis based on the modified Scherrer formula, which in turn, allows for mean grain size and average microstrain to be computed. However, when applied to polycrystalline bulk semiconductors, the modified Scherrer formula gives grain sizes of the order of a few hundreds of nanometers, which is not usually observed in bulk materials. Instead, a new theoretical scheme with misfit dislocations and plastic deformations would be used to calculate the grain size into a bulk. Assuming that these dislocations are of elastic origin, we were able to calculate the misfit dislocations density as function of the elastic constants of the materials. With this, the modified Scherrer formula is corrected to explain the additional XRD line broadening. All microstructure parameters of our samples increase as the atomic radius of the VI-element increases, with elastic constants similar to related semiconducting compounds.