Systematical, experimental investigations on LiMgZ (Z= P, As, Sb) wide band gap semiconductors

This work reports on the experimental investigation of the wide band gap compounds LiMgZ (Z = P, As, Sb), which are promising candidates for opto-electronics and anode materials for Lithium batteries. The compounds crystallize in the cubic (C1_b) MgAgAs structure (space group F-43m). The polycrystalline samples were synthesized by solid state reaction methods. X-ray and neutron diffraction measurements show a homogeneous, single-phased samples. The electronic properties were studied using the direct current (DC) method. Additionally UV-VIS diffuse reflectance spectra were recorded in order to investigate the band gap nature. The measurements show that all compounds exhibit semiconducting be…