Hopping conduction in n -type CdTe and CdMgTe

The experimental data of the temperature-dependent Hall-effect measurements on single crystal samples of n-type CdTe reported in literature are analysed. As a result, the presence of nearest-neighbor hopping in n-type CdTe is revealed for the first time between the temperature ranges in which free-electron conduction and variable-range hopping conduction dominate, respectively. In particular, it is shown that nearest-neighbor hopping dominates the electrical conductivity, the Hall coefficient, and the Hall mobility even at such high temperatures as to be almost near room temperature. Furthermore, the analyses are performed for n-type CdMgTe samples with the Mg content lower than 0.35. It is shown for CdMgTe with the Mg content lower than 0.3 that the present model works well together with the material constants for CdMgTe calculated by the interpolation between CdTe and MgTe, whereas much larger values of the electron effective mass and the acoustic deformation potential are necessary for fitting the data on CdMgTe with the Mg content of 0.35.