Conductivity change of Au/p-CdTe/Au as a function of the temperature gradient

Single crystals of p-CdTe with two Au contacts demonstrate large changes of conductivity depending on the temperature gradient as has been shown [Vack ova et al., Proc. XVI Int. Conf. on Thermoelectrics, August 1997, Dresden, Germany]. In this work the mechanisms explaining this dependence, mainly th e charge redistribution due to the temperature gradient, are discussed. The change of conductivity reaches up to 30% at the temperature gradient of 10 K/cm depending on the acceptor activation energy. This effect has to be ta ken into account in proposing semiconductor devices on p-CdTe. (C) 1999 Els evier Science B.V. All rights reserved.