Galvanomagnetic and photoelectric properties of electron-irradiated PbTe(Ga)

The effect of deep electron irradiation on the galvanomagnetic and photoelectric properties of p- and n- type PbTe single crystals doped with gallium have been investigated. It has been found that electron irradiation of p-type samples results in the decrease of the holes concentration, the p-n-conversion and the transition of irradiated crystals to a dielectric state. In all investigated samples long-term relaxation processes and effect of persistent photoconductivity at low temperatures have been revealed. Under the electron irradiation the photoresponse in the p-type samples with low gallium concentration monotonously increase up to the point of transition to the dielectric state. In the dielectric state gallvanomagnetic and photoelectric parameters of the samples do not depend on the irradiation fluence whether it has been achieved by means of sufficient doping or slight initial doping followed by the electron irradiation and PbTe doped with gallium possesses high radiation hardness of galvanomagnetic parameters.© (1997) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.