The effect of the selenium concentration in the composition of the Cd1−xZnxTe1−ySey semiconductor crystals on their etching with a bromine-methanol solution was studied. A thermodynamic model is proposed to describe the degree of etching of Cd1−xZnxTe and Cd1−xZnxTe1−ySey crystals. A thermodynamic law is obtained for the first time to describe the change in the etching rate of Cd1−xZnxTe1−ySey crystals with different selenium concentrations. Experimental dependencies are constructed for etching trajectories and etching rates with 5% bromine-methanol solutions of Cd1−xZnxTe1−ySey crystal samples with nominal x∼0.1 and selenium concentrations of y=0, y=0.02, y=0.06, and y=0.1. The average etching rates were 24μm/min, 18μm/min, 15μm/min, and 13μm/min. The threshold effect of a strong decrease in the etching rate upon transition from ternary Cd1−xZnxTe to quaternary Cd1−xZnxTe1−ySey crystals, associated with hardening of the crystal structure, is identify and theoretically explained. The obtained experimental data are in good agreement with the theoretical estimates and will be useful for choosing the optimal regimes of crystal treatment.
@article{arxiv.2509.24532,
title = {Bromine-methanol etching of semiconductor crystals $Cd_{1-x}Zn_{x}Te_{1-y}Se_{y}$ with different selenium concentrations},
author = {S. V. Naydenov and G. M. Babenko and O. K. Kapustnyk and I. M. Pritula},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2509.24532},
year = {2026}
}