Regular and anomalous-type conversion of p-CdTe during Cd-rich annealing

The kinetics of the p-to-n conversion and effect of the anomalous n-to-p reconversion of p-CdTe during annealing at 400–700°C under Cd-rich overpressure have been investigated. The p-to-n conversion is related to diffusion of Cd interstitials together with gettering of foreign fast diffusing acceptors to the center of the sample. The propagation of the n-type layer during annealing at 500°C was found to be significantly slower then the standard square-root dependence on annealing time. The anomalous n-to-p reconversion of the converted n-type sample was observed after sufficient long time annealing at 600°C.