In the present work the electric and galvanomagnetic properties of p-PbSe single crystals were investigated under the action of fast neutrons. Samples of PbSe were irradiated by the fast neutrons at T = 320 K and after that they were annealed up to 390 K with 10 K step (20 min). The present work was devoted to the experimental investigations of influence of irradiation
-induced defects on the electron structure and electronic properties of PbSe.
The semiconductor-metal phase transition induced by the neutron irradiation have been established by the jump of electrical resistance in several orders of magnitude and by the inverse of the temperature coefficients of resistivity. The temperature and magnetic field dependencies of electrical resistance, magnetoresistance and Hall coefficients of p-PbSe have been obtained for a wide interval of temperatures T=1.5-370 K and magnetic fields B=0-13.6 Tesla. The Hall effect conserved the positive value under the irradiation and consequent annealing. The above technique allows to change reversibly the defect concentration and, therefore, to vary the electron structure of the crystals. The increasing of density of states in the defect level under the neutron irradiation may be responsible for the transferring of electrons from valence band to this level and for the corresponding enlarging of resistivity observed.
This work was partly supported by RFBR Gr.No.(01-02-17203), Ministry of Industry, Science and Technologies of the Russian Federation (Contracts No. 40.012.1.1.1166 (Project No 6/03),Special Federal Program of Basic Research at Russian Academy of Sciences "Quantum macrophysics" and Program of government support to leading scientific schools of Russia (Project No. SS. 639.2003.2)