Mott type variable range hopping conduction and magnetoresistance in p-type CuIn3Te5 semiconductor compound

Variable range hopping (VRH) conduction of Mott type for a constant and non-vanishing density of states at the Fermi level is observed over a wide range of temperature between 45 and 210 K in the ordered defect compound CuIn3Te5 (CIT135). For this type of electrical conduction at a very high temperature, not reported before in elemental, II-VI, and I-III-VI2 compound semiconductors, we employed three different methods to analyze the data and to confirm this behavior. The occurrence of VRH at very high temperatures is explained as due to the presence of the electrically inactive ( In Cu + 2  + 2 V Cu − 1 ) donor-acceptor defect pairs in CIT135. This defect-pair partially annihilates the shallow acceptor defect state Cu vacancy, which is responsible for the activated electrical conductivity observed in p-type ternary I-III-VI2 chalcopyrite compounds in the temperature range of liquid nitrogen. In such conditions, the only acceptor level available for electrical conduction in CIT135 is a deep acceptor stat...