II–VI compounds – Polish perspective

Abstract

AbstractThe purpose of this lecture is to review the main achievements of the investigations of II–VI compounds and point out Polish contributions to this part of solid state physics. Because the Polish physicists were particularly active in the area of narrow gap semiconductors as well as in the area of semimagnetic semiconductors producing several pioneering papers in this field, special attention will be paid to the narrow gap mercury‐based semiconductor alloys and to the II–VI semimagnetic semiconductors, both narrow and wide gap. Some problems connected with material processing, the most influential experimental results as well as theoretical ideas will be presented. Because the history of II–VI compounds lasts for many decades (also in Poland), only selected achievements will be reviewed. The lecture will concentrate mostly on the properties of bulk crystals; low‐dimensional structures and other current and hot problems of II–VI compounds will be only mentioned. (© 2006 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)