Effect of pressure and anionic substitution on the electrical properties of HgTeS crystals

Abstract

The resistivity ρ and the Hall constant R for the HgTe1−xSx (0.04≤x≤0.6) crystals have been investigated in the temperature range 4.2–350 K in the magnetic fields B up to 14 T. The pressure dependences of the resistivity ρ have been measured at the pressures P as high as 1 GPa at temperature T=77–300 K and magnetic field B=0–2 T. It is found that the samples with x≤0.20 exhibit a decreasing dependence ρ(T) typical of zero-gap semiconductors, whereas the samples with x≥0.27 show the dependence ρ(T) characteristic of semimetals. For the semiconducting crystals with x≈0.20 and x≈0.14, the temperature coefficient of ρ(T) changes sign at T=265 and T>300 K, respectively. Under a pressure of ≈1 GPa, the temperature of the sign inversion decreases by ≈30 K. An increase in the magnetic field B and a rise in the temperature T lead to a change in the sign of the Hall constant R for the semiconducting samples, but do not affect the electronic sign of R for the semimetallic samples. The behavior of R and ρ correlates with the thermoemf data obtained at the quasi-hydro-static pressure P up to 3 GPa. It is demonstrated that the substitution of sulfur atoms for tellurium atoms brings about an increase in the concentration of electrons and a decrease in their mobility. The transition to the wide-gap semiconductor phase is observed at P>1–1.5 GPa. The conclusion is drawn that the semimetallic crystals HgTe1−xSx with x≥0.27 and HgSe are similar in properties.