Two-Valence Band Electron And Heat Transport In Monocrystalline Pbte-Cdte Solid Solutions With Cd Content Up To 10 Atomic Percent

High-quality p-type PbTe-CdTe monocrystalline alloys containing up to 10 at.% of Cd have been obtained by self-selecting vapor transport method. Mid-infrared photoluminescence experiments have been performed in order to follow the variation of the fundamental energy gap as a function of Cd content. The Hall mobility, thermoelectric power, thermal conductivity, and thermoelectric figure-of-merit parameter ZT were investigated experimentally and theoretically with special attention paid to the two-valence band structure of the material. It is shown that the heavy-hole band near the Sigma point of the Brillouin zone plays an important role and is responsible for the Pb1-xCdxTe hole transport at higher Cd content. Our data and their description can serve as monocrystalline reference for Pb1-xCdxTe crystals with x up to 0.1. It is shown that monocrystalline Pb1-xCdxTe samples with relatively low Cd content of about 1 at.% and hole concentration of the order of 10(20) cm(-3) may exhibit ZT approximate to 1.4 at 600 K.