Defects in semiconductors—results from Mössbauer spectroscopy

Progress in the development of Mössbauer techniques with ion-implanted, radioactive precursors to a Mössbauer isotope is discussed. Results obtained for elemental group IV semiconductors and their alloys as well as for III–V and II–VI compound semiconductors are presented. Emphasis is put on Mössbauer emission spectroscopy with radioactive probe atoms where the recoil energy in the nuclear decay is sufficient to expel the daughter atoms from a (substitutional) lattice site. The interactions of such (interstitial) atoms have been studied for ¹¹⁹Sb →¹¹⁹Sn in III–V compounds and for ⁵⁷Fe in silicon in particular. Finally, preliminary results, contributing to the question of the origin and nature of the magnetism in the Fe-doped, dilute magnetic semiconductor ZnO, are given.