Transport and recombination kinetics in TlGaTe2 crystals

In this work, the transport and recombination mechanisms as well as the average hole-relaxation time in TlGaTe2 have been investigated by means of temperature-dependent dark electrical conductivity, photoexcitation intensity-dependent photoconductivity, and Hall effect measurements, respectively. The experimental data analysis revealed the existence of a critical temperature of 150 K. At this temperature, the transport mechanism is disturbed. The dark conductivity data analysis allowed the determination of an energy state of 258 meV The hole-relaxation time that was determined from the Hall mobility data was observed to increase with decreasing temperature. The behavior was attributed to the hole-thermal lattice scattering interactions. At fixed photoexcitation intensity, the photocurrent I-ph decreases with decreasing temperature down to 150 K. Below this temperature it changes direction. The latter data allowed the determination of the recombination center energy as 1 10 meV On the other hand, at fixed temperature and variable illumination intensity, the photocurrent follows the relation I-ph alpha F-n (the value of the exponent, it, decreases with decreasing temperature). (C) 2009 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim