First report on effect of freezing of charge carriers on conductivity of CoxZn1−xS ternary semiconductor compounds at low temperatures

• Published in: Chemical physics letters 2022-06, Vol.796, p.139571, Article 139571
• Main Authors: Rao, V. Laxminarasimha, Vasudeva Reddy, Y., Shekharam, T., Nagabhushanam, M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Activation energy; Co-precipitation technique; DC conductivity; Variable range hopping
• ISSN: 0009-2614; 1873-4448
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cplett.2022.139571

Plot of Log σ versus 103/T for CoxZn1−xS (x = 0–0.1) compounds. [Display omitted] •Bulk polycrystalline CoxZn1−xS (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.1) ternary semiconductor compounds were prepared by controlled Co-Precipitation method.•The temperature-dependent conductivity measured in the range 300–77 K and the activation energies evaluated.•The dc electrical conductivity increases with increase in cobalt content in all the samples and also increases with temperature, which confirms the semiconductor nature of the samples.•The increase in conductivity of CoxZn1−xS compounds and increase in activation energies in region (ii) with increase in cobalt concentration suggests hopping of charge carriers in defect localized states around EF.•It was the first report on freezing of charge carriers and conductivity of CoxZn1−xS compounds at low temperature region. Polycrystalline ternary semiconductor compounds with the compositional formula CoxZn1−xS (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.1) samples have been synthesized by a controlled co-precipitation technique. The samples are characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) method. DC conductivity studies were performed in the temperature region 77–300 K. The dc conductivity plots show the Arrhenius behavior with three different activation energies (Ea) in three different temperature regions I (300–165 K), II (165–100 K), III (100–77 K), and they exhibited the variable range hopping conduction (VRH) mechanism at low temperature region (100–77 K).