Study of silver and copper diffusion in p-type Hg0.3Cd0.7Te and CdTe by capacitance measurements

Abstract A procedure to determine the diffusion coefficients of metallic impurities in p-type semiconductors is presented. This method, which rests on the analysis of the capacitance transient curve C ( t ) at various temperatures has been applied to the study of copper and silver diffusion in p-type Hg 0.3 Cd 0.7 Te and CdTe crystals. The as-found diffusion coefficients are in good agreement with existing results. The large activation energy of the silver diffusion coefficient, at low temperature, might come from the formation of a donor–acceptor complex.