Conduction mechanisms in p-type Pb1−xEuxTe alloys in the insulator regime

Abstract

Electrical resistivity measurements were performed on p-type Pb1−xEuxTe films with Eu content x = 4%, 5%, 6%, 8%, and 9%. The well-known metal-insulator transition that occurs around 5% at room temperature due to the introduction of Eu is observed, and we used the differential activation energy method to study the conduction mechanisms present in these samples. In the insulator regime (x > 6%), we found that band conduction is the dominating conduction mechanism for high temperatures with carriers excitation between the valence band and the 4f levels originated from the Eu atoms. We also verified that mix conduction dominates the low temperatures region. Samples with x = 4% and 5% present a temperature dependent metal insulator transition and we found that this dependence can be related to the relation between the thermal energy kBT and the activation energy Δɛa. The physical description obtained through the activation energy analysis gives a new insight about the conduction mechanisms in insulating p-type Pb1−xEuxTe films and also shed some light over the influence of the 4f levels on the transport process in the insulator region.