Chalcogenides and oxy-chalcogenides, including complex chalcogenides and transition metal dichalcogenides, are emerging semiconductors with direct or indirect band gaps within the visible spectrum. These materials are being explored for various photonic and electronic applications, such as photodetectors, photovoltaics, and phase-change electronics. Understanding the fundamental properties of these materials is crucial for optimizing their functionalities. Therefore, the availability of large, high-quality single crystals of chalcogenides and oxy-chalcogenides is essential for a better comprehension of their structure and properties. In this study, we present a novel crystal growth method that utilizes the exchange reaction between BaS and ZrCl4/ HfCl4. By carefully controlling the stoichiometric ratio of the binary sulfide to the chloride, we can grow single crystals of several materials, such as ZrS2, HfS2, BaZrS3, and ZrOS. This method results in large single crystals with a short reaction time of 24 to 48 hours. High-resolution thin film diffraction and single-crystal X-ray diffraction confirm the quality of the crystals produced through this exchange reaction. We also report the optical properties of these materials investigated using photoluminescence and Raman measurements. The chloride exchange reaction method paves the way for the synthesis of single crystals of chalcogenides and oxy-chalcogenide systems with a short reaction time but with low mosaicity and can be an alternative growth technique for single crystals of materials that are difficult to synthesize using conventional growth techniques.
@article{arxiv.2506.16695,
title = {Crystal Growth of Chalcogenides and Oxy-Chalcogenides Using Chloride Exchange Reaction},
author = {Shantanu Singh and Boyang Zhao and Christopher E. Stevens and Mythili Surendran and Tzu-Chi Huang and Bi-Hsuan Lin and Joshua R. Hendrickson and Jayakanth Ravichandran},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2506.16695},
year = {2025}
}