Hall effect measurements on transmutation doped semiconductors

Transmutation doping of semiconductors by neutron irradiation is a well kno wn technique, mainly applied to achieve an extremely uniform low level n-do ping of large Si crystals via the Si-30(n,gamma)Si-31 --> P-31 nuclear reac tion. Similar experiments in other semiconductors never gained a comparable importance. In the last years, however, it has been shown that the doping of semiconductors by implanting radioactive isotopes can yield valuable inf ormation about the processes occurring during the incorporation of dopant a toms into the lattice as well as the defect-dopant interactions occurring a fter the decay of the unstable isotope to a daughter isotope with usually d ifferent elemental properties. In this contribution, Hall effect measuremen ts carried out so far on implanted radioactive dopants will be reviewed. Th e specific problems and the potential of the method will be discussed.