The Effect of Plastic Bending on the Electrical Properties of Indium Antimonide

High temperature plastic bending was used to introduce, into indium antimonide single crystals, an excess of dislocations having either In-atoms at the edge of their extra half-planes ("In-dislocations"), or having Sb-atoms there ("Sb-dislocations"). The densities of these two kinds of dislocations were estimated by etch pit techniques. Hall coefficient and electrical conductivity measurements, made on bent samples, indicated that both In-and Sb-dislocations act as acceptor centres in n-type material, and that In-dislocations act as acceptor centres in p-type material. The results are discussed in relation to the theories of Read [22] and Broudy [4].