Dopant diffusion in GaP and related compounds: recent results and new considerations

The paper recalls some major progress made over the past decade in the understanding of dopant diffusion in compound semiconductors. However, existing models to describe the diffusion behaviour of acceptors such as e.g. Zn and Cd in III–V compounds reveal serious discrepancies with respect to the whole body of available experimental data. We present new experiments on GaP and an alternative theoretical approach which both may contribute to find a consistent interpretation.