Narrow Results

In this work, we study the influence of the temperature on the mechanism of current transfer in the reverse branch of the current–voltage (I–V) characteristics of n-CdS/p-CdTe heterostructures. The study of the heterostructure, using the technique of on energy-dispersive X-ray analysis, showed that a layer of CdS_xTe${}_{1-x}$ is formed at the boundary of the heterojunction with a varying composition, being equal $x\approx 0.48$ from the side of CdS and $x\approx 0.02$ from the CdTe side. In the studied range of the temperatures and bias voltage, the current-voltage characteristics are described well by a power law $J=A{V}^{\alpha }$, where the exponent $\alpha$ changes with the temperature and voltage. Under the influence of the temperature and charge carrier concentration, the mechanism of current transfer in the structure changes from exclusion ($\alpha \approx 0.5$) to ohmic ($\alpha \approx 1$), and then goes to injection ($\alpha \approx 2$). The inhomogeneous intermediate CdS_xTe${}_{1-x}$i-layer at the boundary of the n-CdS/p-CdTe heterostructure is characterized by the presence of metastable states that rearrange at high temperatures and certain charge carrier concentrations. As a result of this, the exclusion slows down and electrons are injected from the rear molybdenum contact.