Experimental measurements of the cation vacancy formation energies (E f) of Hg1-xCdxTe were carried out by Hg-annealing and rapid quenching to room temperature, followed by Hall measurements at 77K. The observations showed that one charge state vacancy was predominant, so that the fractional number n of cation vacancies at temperature T was related exponentially to the energy Ef required to create one vacancy, n = Aexp[-Ef/kT]. No appreciable temperature dependence of Ef due to the temperature variation of the ionization levels and the self-consistent Fermi level was seen. The measured value for the activation energy was found to be 0.9eV for Hg1-xCdxTe with x = 0.21, 0.3 and 0.43. This value was found to be nearly independent of x.

Cation Vacancy Formation Energies in Liquid-Phase-Epitaxial Hg1-xCdxTe. S.H.Shin, M.Khoshnevisan, C.Morgan-Pond, R.Raghavan: Journal of Applied Physics, 1985, 58[ 4], 1470-3