Dissipation of Current Carriers in Lead Telluride Films

The mechanisms of current carrier scattering in polycrystalline lead telluride (PbTe) films deposited on glass substrates in the temperature range $77-300 \mathrm{~K}$ have been studied. The main attention is paid to scattering at the grain-to-grain limits, which is the dominant mechanism affecting the mobility of current carriers. In this work, a mathematical expression is obtained for calculating the mobility of current carriers in thin films, considering scattering on the surface and intergrain limits, which makes it possible to evaluate the influence of these mechanisms on the mobility of current carriers. The dependence of current carrier mobility in PbTe films on thickness and temperature has been studied. It has been established that the dominant scattering mechanism is scattering at grain boundaries. The activation energy of electrical conductivity was estimated, which is approximately 0.04-0.07 eV.