Single crystal preparation and crystal structure of the Cu2Zn/Cd,Hg/SnSe4 compounds

Single crystals of Cu2Zn/Cd/SnSe4 were grown using a solution-fusion method. The crystal structure of the Cu2Zn/Cd,Hg/SnSe4 compounds were investigated using X-ray powder diffraction. These compounds crystallize in the stannite structure (space group I4̄2m) with the lattice parameters: a=0.56882(9), c=1.13378(9) nm, c/a=1.993 (Cu2ZnSnSe4), a=0.58337(2), c=1.14039(4) nm, c/a=1.955 (Cu2CdSnSe4) and a=0.58288(1), c=1.14179(2) nm, c/a=1.959 (Cu2HgSnSe4). Atomic parameters were refined in the isotropic approximation (RI=0.0517, RI=0.0511 and RI=0.0695 for Cu2ZnSnSe4, Cu2CdSnSe4 and Cu2HgSnSe4, respectively).