Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 February 2011
Using the radioactive isotope 111Ag, the incorporation of Ag into CdTe is investigated by photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL) and the perturbed yy-angular correlation technique (PAC). PL is used to demonstrate the incorporation as a substitutional acceptor (AgCd) by monitoring the intensity of the donor-acceptor transition, corresponding to an acceptor level of EV + 108 meV, which decreases just with the half life of the radioactive decay of the 111Ag isotope. Since the isotope 111Ag also serves as a probe atom for PAC experiments, it is possible to confirm the incorporation of Ag atoms on lattice sites with cubic symmetry. Additionally, in CdTe a defect complex is detected, which is assigned to a AgCd-VTe pair. A second defect complex is observed in CdTe doped with In, which is assigned to an InCd-AgCd pair. By PAC experiments with the probe 111In that are performed in Ag doped CdTe, the formation of the InCd-AgCd pair is confirmed besides the well known formation of the InCd-VCd pair. The migration energy of the cation vacancy is estimated on the basis of an isothermal annealing sequence.