Electroelastic Properties of the Sulfides, Selenides, and Tellurides of Zinc and Cadmium

Abstract

A complete set of elastic, piezoelectric, and dielectric constants is presented for the sulfides, selenides, and tellurides of zinc and cadmium. The piezoelectric constants for the hexagonal crystals in this group are markedly higher than for the cubic crystals. An elementary model theory applied to these data leads to electric charges on the metal atom increasing from +0.066 e for ZnTe to +0.84 e for CdS. The elastic compliance increases regularly with increasing anion and cation weight, with no break between the cubic and hexagonal crystals. Pyroelectric constants are given for CdS and CdSe. The quality factor of elastic resonances of CdS plates is measured as function of electric conductivity.