Hole transport properties in gallium antimonide from 77 to 300°K

Abstract

Hall-mobility and transverse-magnetoresistance measurements have been made on zinc-doped $p$-GaSb from 77 to 300\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}K. Single-crystal samples with doping concentrations 8\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}${10}^{17}$ and 3\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}${10}^{18}$ ${\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}3}$ were investigated. The split in the heavy- and light-hole bands due to the influence of the linear $k$ term in the energy expression of the holes in the valence band has been investigated. An energy separation of 0.015 eV has been found to explain the observed galvanomagnetic data. Intervalley and intravalley scattering by the acoustical, nonpolar, and polar-optical phonons and the ionized-impurity scattering for $p$-like wave functions in the valence band have been considered. The impurity activation energy associated with the heavy-hole band is found to be 0.010 eV in the lightly doped sample. The impurity band is shown to merge with the valence band in the more heavily doped $p$-GaSb.