Lead telluride doped with rare-earth elements
Abstract
This study was undertaken to investigate the potential advantages of certain rare-earth elements as n-type dopants for lead chalcogenide diode lasers grown by molecular beam epitaxy. It was found that holmium (Ho), dysprosium (Dy), and erbium (Er) are n-type dopants in PbTe, producing maximum electron concentrations of 1×1019 cm-3 at 77 K. However, annealing under tellurium-rich conditions caused PbTe samples doped with these elements to convert to p-type under some annealing conditions. The diffusion coefficient of Ho in PbTe at 370 °C is less than 1×10-16 cm2/s at high concentration (>1×1018 cm-3). At low concentration (∼1017 cm-3), fast diffusing Ho was observed. Significant degradation of contacts to Ho-, Dy-, and Er-doped PbTe was observed after prolonged aging.
- Publication:
-
Journal of Applied Physics
- Pub Date:
- March 1985
- DOI:
- 10.1063/1.334385
- Bibcode:
- 1985JAP....57.1997P
- Keywords:
-
- Doped Crystals;
- Lead Tellurides;
- Molecular Beam Epitaxy;
- Rare Earth Elements;
- Semiconductor Lasers;
- Additives;
- Diffusion Coefficient;
- Dysprosium;
- Erbium;
- Holmium;
- Solid-State Physics