Beryllium selenide has the molecular formula of BeSe
and the molecular weight of 87.9722 g/mol. Its CAS
number is 12232-25-6. The literature concerning BeSe is
very sparse and the physical constants such as melting
point have not been published. It can be prepared by
reacting the elements at about 650°C in an inert
atmosphere:
Be+ Se ? BeSe
Beryllium selenide crystallizes in the zincblende unit
cell with a lattice parameter of 5.1521? . Space
group=F43m-Td2 . It is not very stable in air and tends
to hydrolyze with moisture to form H2Se gas (which
is toxic to humans). Because of this instability, BeSe
has not been employed by itself as a semiconductor
even though its band gap is classified as wide.
Interest in BeSe originates from the fact that formation
of ternary BeZnSe or BeMgZnSe compositions allows
the formation of deposited layers that can be matched
to silicon substrates.
They can also be used to form a blue-green emitting
ZnSe-based laser diode grown on GaSe.
