Photoconductivity in Magnesium Antimonide Layers

Layers of Mg 3 Sb 2 evaporated in vacuo are found to exhibit semiconducting properties, although both constituents are normally metals. Under suitable conditions the layers are photosensitive. Measurements have been carried out on the spectral distribution of sensitivity, and show bands with long wavelength edges at 1.5 μ, 2.6 μ and 3.5 μ. The former is identified with intrinsic conductivity, and the two latter with impurity levels Activation energies found from resistance-temperature measurements are very similar to the optical activation energies corresponding to the above wavelengths