Journal of Materials Science Research and Reviews

The study reviews gapless cadmium arsenide (Cd₃As₂) and tunable-gap lead-tin telluride (Pb_₁₋ₓSn_ₓTe) semiconductor crystals with respect to growth, characterization, analysis applications, prospects and challenges; and was undertaken because accumulated research findings on these materials, whose applications have revolutionized the world and, and which require compositional and structural precision to exhibit their exotic electronic behaviours is lacking. This is very necessary in order to realize next-generation quantum materials with exotic transport dynamics that depend critically on the production of gapless and tunable-gap semiconductors with extrinsic impurities that significantly alter their electronic and topological properties. The possibility of manipulating band structure through symmetry breaking, confinement, or many-body interactions continues to make it a focal point of research in semiconductor physics, nanoelectronics, and quantum device engineering. The majority of the growth techniques and syntheses of these semiconductors have efficient development methods since they permit bulk crystal development with strong compositional homogeneity for these high-quality semiconductor crystals due to their ability to minimize defect densities and maintain stoichiometric precision. It is also noted that characterization of these crystals is crucial for understanding their crystallographic quality, phase purity, and lattice parameters, which directly influence their electronic properties. These materials display interesting features for applications in quantum computers and as topological insulators (TIs) due to their unique electrical characteristics, and the non-trivial band structures and symmetry-protected surface states. Strain engineering and quantum confinement are some physical methods to open a bandgap as uniaxial or biaxial strain modifies the hopping parameters in the tight-binding Hamiltonian, potentially breaking the degeneracy at the Dirac points. While challenges in scalability, material stability, and environmental sensitivity of Cd₃As₂ limit its general relevance, bandgap adjustability and ability to undergo topological phase transitions poses its own set of issues, especially at high x values in Pb₁₋ₓSnₓTe.  Introducing strain, dislocations, or cracking during growth and post-processing could result in lattice mismatch and thermal expansion variations between Pb₁₋ₓSnₓTe and substrate materials, and can influence carrier mobility and hide or suppress the topological surface states, therefore influencing their fit for either electrical or spintronic uses.  From a commercial perspective, both Cd₃As₂ and Pb₁₋ₓSnₓTe have difficulties integrating in scalable and reasonably priced manufacturing techniques, and transition from experimental platforms to functional components in quantum computing, spintronics, or topological devices requires overcoming these technical and material-specific challenges.