Empirical Correlations Between the Arrhenius’ Parameters of Impurities’ Diffusion Coefficients in CdTe Crystals

Abstract

Understanding of self-and dopant-diffusion in semiconductor devices is essential to our being able to assure the formation of well-defined doped regions. In this paper, we compare obtained in the literature up to date the Arrhenius' parameters (D=D 0 exp(2DE a /kT)) of point-defect diffusion coefficients and the I-VII groups impurities in CdTe crystals and films. We found that in the diffusion process there was a linear dependence between the pre-exponential factor, D 0 , and the activation energy, DE a , of different species: This was evident in the self-diffusivity and isovalent impurity Hg diffusivity as well as for the dominant IIIA and IVA groups impurities and Chlorine, except for the fast diffusing elements (e.g., Cu and Ag), chalcogens O, S, and Se, halogens I and Br as well as the transit impurities Mn, Co, Fe. Reasons of the lack of correspondence of the data to compensative dependence are discussed.

Size- and Surface-Dependent Solubility of Cadmium Telluride in Aqueous Solutions

“…Note, these diffusion constants hold for room temperature. Therefore, it is not easy to compare them to literature data [32][33][34], which are taken at temperatures above 500 • C. In 2015 Shcherbak et al [35] analyzed the literature data for diffusion in CdTe in the high-temperature regime. For most diffusing species in CdTe there holds an Arrhenius law for the dependence of the diffusion constants D on absolute temperature T according to D = D 0 exp (−E A /kT) with prefactor D 0 and activation energy E A .…”

“…We explain this finding with the formation of Cd-containing precipitates: Depending not only on the pH, but also on the kind of solvent, Cd forms different hydroxides in water-based solutions. For pH4, the species distribution plots of Cd [35,36] show only Cd 2+ions. The higher the pH, depending on the redox potential, the more hydroxides that appear.…”

Enthalpy-entropy compensation of atomic diffusion originates from softening of low frequency phonons

“…This issue is best exemplified by the limited understanding of the ubiquitous compensation effect, also referred to as Meyer-Neldel rule 9 , 10 , according to which diffusion pre-exponential factors D 0 of different impurities diffusing in a same solid increase exponentially with their activation energy Δ E : , with D 00 and γ c , the compensation pre-exponential factor and compensation factor, respectively. This so-called “law of compensation” has been reported in a wide variety of solids, including metals 10 , minerals 11 , semiconductors 12 , and ionic crystals 13 ; we illustrate it in Fig. 1 a for self- and impurity diffusion in silicon and aluminum.…”

“…, with D 00 and γ c , the compensation preexponential factor and compensation factor, respectively. This socalled "law of compensation" has been reported in a wide variety of solids, including metals 10 , minerals 11 , semiconductors 12 , and ionic crystals 13 ; we illustrate it in Fig. 1a for self-and impurity diffusion in silicon and aluminum.…”

Thermodynamics and crystal growth of Cd1-x-yMnxZnyTe (x=0.10, 0.20, y=0.15)

“…Such correlation is known as the compensation effect (CEF) governed by the Meyer-Neldel rule (MNR) [2,3]. This phenomenon has already been investigated for diffusion [4] and melting/crystallization processes [5,6] in pure CdTe and CdTe-based ternary solid solutions. In the present work we investigate CEF in more complex CdTe-based solid solutions, namely Cd1-x-yMnxZnyTe.…”