E. Dynowska, S. Miotkowska, J. Kachniarz, T. Story, A. Jędrzejczak
Institute of Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
The aim of those studies was to find the dependence of the lattice constants on the real compositions of
the Pb1-X-YSnXMnYTe crystals grown by the Bridgman method. The nominal values of the investigated samples
were: 0.29 < x < 0.80 and 0.01 < x < 0.21. The determination of the real composition have been carried
out using the electron microprobe analysis, and the studies of the lattice constants were made using
the X-ray powder diffractometer. Generally, the lattice constant decreases with increasing of Sn and Mn
contents from a = 6.460 A for PbTe (x = 0, y = 0) to a = 6.227 A for x = 0.78 and x = 0.20. The
lattice constant changes are very difficult to describe in a simply way as a function of composition.
In this paper, an attempt of finding the method of determining the sample composition from the lattice
constant measurements was undertaken.