Influences of the dislocation density on the electric behavior of n-CdTe

It is well known that the CdTe material suffers from the presence of native defects, due to the introduction of dislocations by pressure owing to its mechanical brittleness. Within this framework, we present a study of the dislocations effect on the electric properties of the CdTe material, using measurements by C(V) and I(V) and IR absorption. The adopted method for the plastic deformation is the Vickers microhardness at room temperature and under various weights (10, 25, 50 and 80 g). The following results have been obtained: a reduction in the donors concentration, an increase in the leakage current as well as a reduction of the band gap and finally a drastic variation of the Schottky barrier where we could observe two distinct behaviours depending on the used side (Cd or Te) for the contact deposition.