Pre-requisites for the formation of unusual diffusion profiles in II-VI semiconductors

The diffusion of the impurities Cu, Ag, Au, and Na in CdTe and CdZnTe exhibits the unusual phenomenon of uphill diffusion if the diffusion of the impurity is performed under external Cd pressure at temperatures typically in the range 700-900 K. A model is proposed that describes these concentration profiles quantitatively and yields pre-requisites for the observation of uphill diffusion. If a metal layer is evaporated onto the implanted surface, the diffusion of the impurity is strongly affected by the generation of intrinsic defects at the metal-semiconductor interface. (C) 2010 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim