p‐type conductive alloys in the Zn‐Ga‐P‐S quaternary system

摘要

It was reported in the literature that high electrical conductivities, either n or p type, cannot be obtained in the GaP‐ZnS system at higher than 5 mol% ZnS. This behavior is similar to that of the other (II‐VI)x(III‐V)1-x pseudobinary alloys. It is reported in this paper that degenerate p‐type conductivity can be achieved in those Zn‐Ga‐P‐S quaternary alloys which slightly deviate from the pseudobinary composition. The required conversion treatment is high‐temperature annealing in zinc vapor. A comparison of the crystal growth technique with those of other researchers suggests that the deviation from the pseudobinary composition originated from the large excess of Ga in the closed system. This effect was enhanced by precipitating the crystals from the Ga solvent by cooling over a wide temperature interval. The significance of finding the high p‐type conductivity was that it led to our present technique of p‐type doping of ZnSe and ZnSxSe1-x.