Variation of carrier concentration in Pb0.8Sn0.2Te with annealing and growth temperature

Abstract

Hole concentrations in the range 10¹⁶-10¹⁸ cm^-3 have been achieved controllably in Pb_0.8Sn_0.2Te by isothermal annealing of bulk crystals and isothermal growth of liquid-phase epitaxial layers at temperatures between 400 and 650 degrees C. At any given temperature, both preparation techniques gave the same carrier concentration suggesting that the results are governed by native defects. The carrier concentration varied exponentially with annealing or growth temperature with an activation energy of 1.2 eV.