Author(s)

Mohammed Ameri, Meriem Fodil, Fatma Z. Aoumeur-Benkabou, Zoubir Mahdjoub, Fatima Boufadi, Ali Bentouaf

Department of Physics, University Djillali Liabes, Sidi Bel Abbes, Algeria.
Laboratoire Microscopy, Microanalysis of Matter and Molecular Spectroscopy, University Djillali Liabes, Sidi Bel Abbes, Algeria.
Laboratory of Communication Networks, Architecture and Multimedia, Sidi-Bel-Abbès University, Sidi Bel Abbès, Algeria.

The present work performs self-consistent ab initio full-potential linear muffin-tin orbital (FP-LMTO) method to study the structural and electronic properties of the ternary Zn_xCd_1-xSe alloy, based on density functional theory (DFT). In this approach, both the local density approximation (LDA) and the generalized gradient approximation (GGA) were used for the exchange-correlation potential calculation. The ground-state properties are determined for the bulk materials CdSe, ZnSe and their alloy in cubic phase. In particular, the lattice constant, bulk modulus, electronic band structures and effective mass. We mainly showed deviation of the lattice parameter and bulk modulus from Vegard’s law of our alloys. We also presented the microscopic origins of the gap bowing using the approach of Zunger et al. The results are compared with other theoretical calculations and experimental data and are in reasonable agreement.

FP-LMTO; Ab-Initio; Approach of Zunger; Effective Mass

M. Ameri, M. Fodil, F. Aoumeur-Benkabou, Z. Mahdjoub, F. Boufadi and A. Bentouaf, "Physical Properties of the Zn_xCd_1-x Se Alloys: Ab-Initio Method," Materials Sciences and Applications, Vol. 3 No. 11, 2012, pp. 768-778. doi: 10.4236/msa.2012.311112.