Cadmium Telluride (CdTe) Optical Material
Cadmium telluride is a non-glass, inorganic optical material. It has a fairly high density and a fairly low heat capacity among non-glass optical ceramics. The graph bars on the material properties cards below compare cadmium telluride to other non-glass optical ceramics (top) and the entire database (bottom). A full bar means this is the highest value in the relevant set. A half-full bar means it's 50% of the highest, and so on.
Mechanical Properties
Elastic (Young's, Tensile) Modulus
45 GPa 6.5 x 106 psi
Knoop Hardness
45
Poisson's Ratio
0.41
Thermal Properties
Melting Onset (Solidus)
1090 °C 1990 °F
Specific Heat Capacity
210 J/kg-K 0.050 BTU/lb-°F
Thermal Conductivity
5.0 W/m-K 2.9 BTU/h-ft-°F
Thermal Expansion
5.9 µm/m-K
Otherwise Unclassified Properties
Density
5.9 g/cm3 370 lb/ft3
Light Transmission Range
1.0 to 25 µm
Refractive Index
2.6
Common Calculations
Stiffness to Weight: Axial
4.3 points
Stiffness to Weight: Bending
20 points
Thermal Diffusivity
4.1 mm2/s
Followup Questions
Further Reading
Handbook of Optical Materials, Marvin J. Weber, 2003
Handbook of Optical Constants of Solids, Edward D. Palik (editor), 1998
CRC Materials Science and Engineering Handbook, 4th ed., James F. Shackelford et al. (editors), 2015