The electrical characteristics of Pb1-xEuxSe homojunctions

Abstract
The current mechanism of Pb1-xEuxSe diodes prepared by the MBE technique was studied by measuring R0A of diodes with five different europium contents as a function of temperature. Good agreement was obtained between theoretical results and experimental data at high temperatures. At low temperatures, R0A is not dominated by band-to-band tunnelling, but by excess tunnelling. The authors favour the explanation of trap-assisted tunnelling since R0A is an exponential function of the energy gap. From the theoretical model, a minority carrier lifetime of the order of a nanosecond was derived.