Phase diagrams of the (Cu2Se, CuSe)-CuGaSe2 system and the crystal growth of CuGaSe2 by the solution method

The pseudo-binary phase diagrams of the Cu2Se-CuGaSe2 and CuSe-CuGaSe2 systems have been investigated for growing single crystals of CuGaSe2 with high quality. When Cu2Se is chosen as a solvent, a CuGaSe2 single crystal was grown from a solution containing 55 mol% CuGaSe2, while in the case of a CuSe solvent, it was grown from a solution containing 58 mol% CuGaSe2. The crystal growth of CuGaSe2 has been attempted from each solution by the so-called solution Bridgman method. The composition of the single crystals precipitated from the two solutions is nearly stoichiometric (Cu : Ga : Se = 1 : 1 : 2). In conclusion, large single crystals can be better grown from CuSe solvent than from Cu2Se solvent. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.