Defect physics of ternary chalcopyrite semiconductors

Abstract The activation energy of acceptor and donor defect states in chalcopyrite compounds are calculated by using model based in the effective-mass theory for the case of single-, double- and triple-point defect centers. It is found that the values of these energies thus calculated for shallow and moderate deep levels are in reasonable agreement with those obtained from experimental data. From the analysis of the results, most of these levels have been identified as due to the presence of cation and anion vacancies and interstitials, and cation–cation and cation–anion antisite disorders.