Cryst. Res. Technol. 46, No. 8, 761 – 764 (2011) / DOI 10.1002/crat.201000627 © 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim A new semimagnetic compound: Cd 1-x Fe x In 2 S 4 single crystal grown by CVT G. Attolini* 1 , C. Frigeri 1 , V. Sagredo 2 , M. Solzi 3 , and G. Delgado 4 1 IMEM-CNR Institute, Parco Area delle Scienze 37/A, 43124 Parma, Italy 2 Physics Department, Universidad de los Andes, Merida, Venezuela 3 Physics Department, University of Parma, Italy 4 Chemistry Department, Universidad de Los Andes, Mérida, Venezuela Received 26 November 2010, revised 11 May 2011, accepted 13 May 2011 Published online 10 June 2011 Key words diluted magnetic semiconductor, CVT, magnetic properties. Single crystals of the Cd 1-x Fe x In 2 S 4 compounds were grown by the chemical vapour transport method using iodine as transport agent. The crystals were grown by placing the ampoule in a two zone furnace, keeping the source temperature and the deposition temperature at 850 and 800 °C respectively. The resulting crystals with nominal concentrations: x = 0.25, 0.5, 0.75 were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction, electron probe micro-analysis and magnetic measurements. Electron probe micro-analysis showed that the actual concentration of Fe was lower than the nominal one. X-ray diffractograms were taken at room temperature for each sample, revealing that the compounds form a solid solution in the whole range of compositions and crystallize with cubic symmetry in the space group Fd3m. All samples show a spinel structure with a random arrangement of cations. The magnetic behavior of the samples was investigated by low-field magnetization measurements in the range 5-300 K. The observed magnetic behavior does not show any magnetic transition in the studied temperature range. However an irreversibility has been observed between zero-field-cooled (ZFC) and field-cooled (FC) cycles. High temperature susceptibility data follow the Curie-Weiss law with a negative paramagnetic Curie temperature, indicating the predominance of antiferromagnetic interactions. The optical absorption data for sample with x = 0.75 shows a direct energy gap of 1.28 eV at RT. © 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim 1 Introduction Diluted magnetic semiconductors (DMS) are obtained by replacing a fraction of the cations with transition ions in a range of compound semiconductors. The DMS are of interest because they show both magnetic and semiconductor behaviour that make them attractive materials for potential device applications [1]. II-III 2 -VI 4 defect chalcopyrite ternary semiconductor compounds show various interesting physical properties according to how the constituent atomic elements are considered. This family of semiconductors shows very attractive structural, optical and magnetic properties, because the substitution of cations by magnetic ions could produce promising semimagnetic semiconductors [2,3]. CdIn 2 S 4 is a member of the family II-III 2 -VI 4 with cubic structure, it exhibits at room temperature an indirect and direct energy gap of 2.05 eV and 2.21 eV [4] and it is a diamagnetic compound. Single crystals of FeIn 2 S 4 grown by solid state reaction presented a cubic spinel structure [5]. Their magnetic properties, reported by J. L. Soubeyroux et. al., suggested a spin-glass like behaviour with freezing temperature of 9.8 K [6]. In the present work, we report on the growth of single crystals of Cd 1-x Fe x In 2 S 4 as well as on structural, optical and magnetic characterization for different Fe content. 2 Experimental Cd 1-x Fe x In 2 S 4 crystals with different nominal concentrations x = 0.25, 0.5 and 0.75 were synthesized by chemical vapour transport method using iodine (6 mg/cm 3 ) as transporting agent starting from pure elements (5N). 1.5 g polycrystalline starting Cd 1-x Fe x In 2 S 4 compounds were prepared by melting stoichiometric amounts of pure elements and pre-reacted in evacuated quartz ampoules 180 mm in length and internal diameter of ____________________ * Corresponding author: e-mail: giovanni@imem.cnr.it