METAL TELLURIDE MANUFACTURE; SYNTHESIS OF HYDROGEN TELLURIDE

摘要

A method of making pure hydrogen telluride is disclosed, involving the reaction of atomic hydrogen (produced by the microwave-induced dissociation of hydrogen gas) on pure metallic tellurium (9). The invention also provides a controlled method of making metal tellurides (especially cadmium mercury telluride for use in photodetector applications) involving the thermal decomposition of hydrogen telluride (however produced) over a hot substrate (14) in the presence of gaseous source(s) of the appropriate metal(s) (11). The use of hydrogen telluride (which has hitherto been considered to be too explosively unstable to be useful) enables cadmium mercury telluride to be synthesised at temperatures below 250 DEG C.