The photoelectronic single crystals of mercury indium telluride (MIT) have been successfully grown by vertical Bridgman method (VB) at the optimized growth conditions. The energy band gap of MIT was authenticated to be 0.73 eV. The crystal was determined through the X-ray diffraction to be defect zinc-blende structure with the space group F43m. The infrared transmittance of the crystal in the region from 400 to 4000cm(-1) was determined by FT-IR to be 50-55%, which decreases gradually with the increase of wavenumber due to the lattice absorption and free carriers absorption. (c) 2006 Published by Elsevier B.V.