Electrical properties and phase transitions of CdS under high pressure and moderate temperature

The electrical transport properties and phase transitions of CdS were investigated under high pressure and moderate temperature by a microcircuit fabricated on diamond anvil cell. Around 2.0 GPa the resistivity of CdS dropped two orders of magnitude sharply, implying a beginning of a phase transition from wurtzite phase to rock-salt phase. At about 4.0 GPa the resistivity appeared a local minimum indicating an end of the transition to rocksalt phase. A local maximum of the resistivity was ob-served at about 8.0 GPa, which was attributed to the changeover of indirect gap from Sigma v-->Xc to Lv-->Xc. Furthermore, two inflexions of resistivity were observed at about 16.0 GPa and 21.0 GPa, which predicting that the indirect band gap of CdS may further change at these pressures. In the range of experimental pressure and temperature CdS still showed the electrical transport property of a semiconductor. (C) 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim