First report on effect of freezing of charge carriers on conductivity of CoxZn1_ xS ternary semiconductor compounds at low temperatures

Polycrystalline ternary semiconductor compounds with the compositional formula CoxZn(1_ x)S (0 <= x & nbsp;& nbsp;<=& nbsp;0.1) samples have been synthesized by a controlled co-precipitation technique. The samples are characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) method. DC conductivity studies were performed in the temperature region 77-300 K. The dc conductivity plots show the Arrhenius behavior with three different activation energies (Ea) in three different temperature regions I (300-165 K), II (165-100 K), III (100-77 K), and they exhibited the variable range hopping conduction (VRH) mechanism at low temperature region (100-77 K).