The traditional compensation model to explain the high resistivity properti
es of CdTe is based on the presence of a deep acceptor level of the cadmium
vacancy in the middle of the band gap. A new compensation model based on a
deep intrinsic donor level is presented. The compensation model is used to
gether with an appropriate segregation model to calculate axial distributio
ns of resistivity which are compared with spatially resolved resistivity me
asurements. The Te-antisite defect is discussed as a possible origin cause
of this intrinsic defect, which is also supported by theoretical calculatio
ns. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(98)02224-5].