II–VI compounds – Polish perspective

Abstract

The purpose of this lecture is to review the main achievements of the investigations of II -VI compounds and point out Polish contributions to this part of solid state physics. Because the Polish physicists were particularly active in the area of narrow gap semiconductors as well as in the area of semimagnetic semiconductors producing several pioneering papers in this field, special attention will be paid to the narrow gap mercury-based semiconductor alloys and to the II -VI semimagnetic semiconductors, both narrow and wide gap. Some problems connected with material processing, the most influential experimental results as well as theoretical ideas will be presented. Because the history of II -VI compounds lasts for many decades (also in Poland), only selected achievements will be reviewed. The lecture will concentrate mostly on the properties of bulk crystals; low-dimensional structures and other current and hot problems of II -VI compounds will be only mentioned.

History of HgTe-based photodetectors in Poland

“…The studies were important contribution to the understanding of fundamental properties of the mate− rial. Theoretical works were provided by Kołodziejczak, Sosnowski, Zawadzki, Szymańska, and co−workers [5]. Many significant papers deal with dielectric function, reso− nance states, phonon spectrum, transport properties and other effects.…”

“…Rogalski et al [32] [66], and later obtained by Morissy in his unpublished thesis in 1971 [67], drew attentions of Polish physicists such as Furdyna, Giriat, and Gałązka [5], very active in that field in coming years. Currently, SMSs are the subject of intensive studies from the applications in spintronics point of view.…”

“…Only selective achievements will be mentioned. The Polish scientist's activity in the area of semimagnetic semiconductors will be treated marginally, since it is presented in recently published review paper by Gałązka [5].…”

Laser controlled magnetization in bulk Zn1–x Mnx Te

“…In contrast to III-Mn-V alloys, in II-VI semimagnetic semiconductors (SMS) the manganese impurity is electrically inactive and has a high solubility [2,3]. This offers a possibility to control independently the electrical and magnetic properties of II-Mn-VI SMS in a wide Mn content range [4].…”

Photoelectric and photothermal investigations of Zn1‐x‐yBexMnySe solid solutions

“…The possibility of applying of these compounds as the spin injectors or spin aligners makes them very attractive for applications in modern optoelectronics [1]. One of the main reason of such interest is the electrical inactivity of Mn in II−VI compound and its relative high solubility to form solid solutions with many II−VI binary compounds [2,3]. For this reason Mn containing II-VI mixed crystals offer an unique possibility of controlling of magnetic properties and electrical conductivity independently in contrast to III−V compounds with Mn [4,5].…”