Giant conductivity enhancement: Pressure-induced semiconductor-metal phase transition in Cd0.90Zn0.1Te

• Published in: Physical review. B 2019-03, Vol.99 (9), p.094109
• Main Authors: Saqib, H, Rahman, S, Errandonea, D, Susilo, Resta A, Jorge-Montero, A, Rodríguez-Hernández, P, Muñoz, A, Sun, Yan, Chen, Zhiqiang, Dai, Ning, Chen, Bin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Carrier density; Collapse; Electrical resistivity; Halites; Material properties; Metallizing; Phase transitions; Temperature dependence; X-ray diffraction; Zincblende
• ISSN: 2469-9950; 2469-9969
• DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.99.094109

Element doping and pressure compression may change material properties for improved performance in applications. We report pressure-induced metallization in the semiconductor Cd0.90Zn0.1Te. Transport measurements showed an overall resistivity drop of 11 orders of magnitude under compression up to 12 GPa, which is indicative of a metallization transition. X-ray diffraction measurements revealed that the sample underwent a structural transition from a cubic-F43¯m phase (zinc blende) to a cubic-Fm3¯m phase (rock salt) at about 5.5 GPa, followed by another transition to an orthorhombic Cmcm structure at 13 GPa. A huge volume collapse of about 18% was observed during the first phase transition, suggesting a first-order phase transition. The disappearance or weakening of Raman modes, temperature-dependent resistivity, and abinitio calculation results depict the metallic nature of both the rock-salt and Cmcm phases. The band structure changes and increased carrier density (especially at the first structural transition) are likely a consequence of the structural transition.