cw laser induced low-temperature decomposition of CdTe crystals

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Abstract
A cw argon ion laser was used to study the thermal behavior of CdTe under laser irradiation. The temperature time profile was calculated from a theoretical model. It turns out that surface decomposition occurs at temperatures well below the melting point (∼850 K), for pulse duration above 100 μs. The sputtering depth plotted against the temperature reached at the end of the pulse reveals a thermally activated process with an energy of 0.49 eV; by contrast, for a purely thermal sublimation, the activation energy is 1.93 eV. The difference of 1.44 eV, close to the band-gap energy, suggests the intervention of a recombination enhanced surface reaction.