Electrical properties of thin PbTe films on Si substrates

An attempt was made to reduce the carrier concentration in thin PbTe films on Si substrates by optimizing deposition conditions. A modified hot-wall method was used for reproducible growth ofp-type films with 5 × 10¹⁵ < p(77 K) < 5 × 10¹⁷ cm^-3 andn-type films with 3 × 10¹⁵ < n(77 K) < 5 × 10¹⁶ cm^-3. The IR irradiation was found to have a significant effect on the temperature variation of film resistance. The activation energy of the IR-sensitivity centers was determined to be 0.11 ± 0.005 eV at room temperature and 0.18 ± 0.005 eV between 150 and 180 K.