On the Characteristic Features of the Impurity Energy Spectrum in Arsenides

Abstract

The impurity energy spectrum of undoped n-type GaAs, InAs, CdSnAs₂, CdGeAs₂, and CdTe, ZnO bulk crystals is studied based on a quantitative analysis of the baric and temperature dependences of the kinetic coefficients. It is found that the deep-level donor center corresponds to the intrinsic vacancy defect in the anion sublattice in the above-listed semiconductors. The conclusion on the nature of the donor center, i.e., the vacancy in the anion sublattice, is based on the fact that, in contrast to shallow impurity centers which trace the intrinsic band under uniform pressure, to which they are genetically related, the energy of deep impurity centers with respect to absolute vacuum remains constant under isotropic compression of the lattice. Therefore, it seems favorable to study the evolution of the carrier energy spectrum in semiconductors under uniform-pressure conditions. The energy-level positions with respect to the conduction-band edge and pressure coefficients of the energy gaps between them and the corresponding conduction-band bottom are determined. The shift of the energy level of the deep donor center to the conduction-band depth with decreasing band gap is observed.