Properties and Processing of Chemical Vapor Deposited Zinc Sulfide

Abstract

The structure and properties of chemical vapor deposited zinc sulfide (CVD ZnS) were assessed before and after heat treatments, involving different annealing and hot isostatic pressing (HIPing) profiles. Samples were characterized using optical microscopy, SEM, TEM, electron diffraction, polycrystalline and powder x-ray diffraction, x-ray chemical microanalysis, photoluminescence, ultraviolet through longwave infrared transmission, and mechanical testing. Before heat treatment, CVD ZnS consists of lamellar twinned structures in 10 to 100 nm layers aggregated into domains which compose grains typically 5 to 10 μm in diameter with an overall crystallographic texture on the {100} planes. The scattering behavior of CVD ZnS was investigated and described by a surface scattering model based on internal surface roughness and refractive index variations due to onedimensional stacking disorder. The two to five percent hexagonality measured by x-ray diffraction is believed to form due to oxygen impurities at the twin boundaries which cause nanostructural polytypism and result in differential refractive index and scattering. CVD ZnS variants in low temperature deposited red ZnS and sulfur precursor elemental ZnS are examined as well. Color in CVD ZnS is believed to be due to band edge position, probably due to oxygen content, and not directly related to the hydride absorption at 6 μm. After annealing or hot isostatic pressing above 850 °C for sufficient time, CVD ZnS recrystallizes and becomes strongly textured on the {111} planes. This recrystallization is required to remove stacking disorder, resulting in a structure with less than half a percent hexagonality and low visible scattering. The recrystallization is believed to proceed by diffusing the oxygen at the nano-twin boundaries back into the lattice, thus unpinning the boundaries and allowing them to move and grow into the tabular recrystallized morphology by polytype induced exaggerated grain growth. The presence of active metals like platinum, silver, copper, or nickel during hot isostatic pressing causes a reaction with sulfur and lowers the temperature required for recrystallization. The optical scattering model is consistent in describing standard CVD ZnS, elemental ZnS, and multispectral recrystallized ZnS as having successively lower birefringence at internal surfaces.