Mechanisms of current flow in zinc telluride-zinc selenide heterojunctions

Abstract

The electrical properties of zinc telluride-zinc selenide heterojunctions prepared by solid-phase substitution reactions are investigated. It is established that the forward current is governed by tunneling-recombination processes at low biases and by above-barrier carrier diffusion at high biases. The initial segments of the reverse branches of the I-V characteristics are described on the basis of the model of tunneling carrier transmission with the participation of deep levels. For high reverse biases the current was found to increase abruptly as a result of impact ionization.