Electrical conduction behavior and hopping rates estimate of cadmium zinc telluride single crystal

• CdZnTe (CZT) single crystal was grown by the modified Bridgman method.
• The electrical conduction behavior of the CZT crystal was studied by impedance spectroscopy.
• The hopping rates of the CZT crystal were estimated.

CdZnTe (CZT) single crystal was grown by a modified vertical Bridgman method. It was used to study the electrical conduction behavior of CZT crystal by impedance spectroscopy in the temperature range over 303–573 K. The imaginary part vs real part of complex impedance plots was considered to be a semicircle indicating only bulk contributions. The value of activation energy derived from the peak of the imaginary part of electrical impedance was found to be 0.08±0.005 eV, which was assigned to relate the migration and hopping of ionized Cd vacancies and Te antisites. The discrepancy between activation energy of dc electrical conductivity (0.35±0.03 eV) and the activation energy (0.20±0.04 eV) of hopping rates was attributed to the high ion hopping rates and low attempt frequencies. The mechanism of electrical conduction was mainly ascribed to a short range migration or hopping of charge carriers including ionized Cd vacancies and Te antisites in the CZT crystal system.