Cryst. Res. Technol. 35 2000 3 315319 Local p-n junction were obtained under room temperature conditions in CuInSe 2 by applying strong electric field through small indium and copper contacts. The current density voltage (J-V) and the capacitance-voltage (C-V) of three different samples were measured at room temperature. The J-V method shows that the current is dominated by the drift component of the injected carriers. The C-V method gave a barrier height of 1.04 eV for all three samples which agrees with the reported energy gap of this material. Analysis of these results indicate that the p-n junction structures formed by strong electric fields are hihgly compensated and the current transport is dominated by the space charge limited current effect. Keywords: CuInSe 2 ; ternary semiconductor ; p-n junction ; SCL current effect ; capacitance-voltage ; current density-voltage (Received October 14, 1999; Accepted January 21, 2000) 1. Introduction Copper indium diselenide (CIS) is a ternary chalcopyrite semiconductor widely investigated because of its application as an absorber in high efficiency solar cells. It has been reported that application of pulse of reverse bias voltages to electrical contacts can create doping profiles in this material, which correspond to p-n or even p-n-p structures (CAHEN et. al.; CHERNYAK et. al.). The junctions formed by this method, as observed by J-V curve, are sharp and the process occurs under room temperature conditions. However, such a characteristic is not always reproducible and important problems related to the devices made with ternary compounds in general and CIS in particular, must be solved before realiable p-n structures can be produced experimentally. One key area for the improvement is in the understanding of the physics involved in the formation of p-n junctions by these techniques and the characterization of the dominant transport mechanism. In this paper we report on the study of the dominant current transport mechanism in a p-n structure in CIS obtained by this technique. 2. Experimental Methods CuInSe 2 single crystals were grown from the melt containing stoichiometric quantities of the elements of at least 5 N purity. p type conductivity was determined by the conventional thermal probe method. The as-grown crystal was cut into slices of 3.0 x 3.0 x 1.0 mm 3 . The electrical contacts were made on samples C43 and C45 using indium pellets and electrodeposition of copper on C23, and were attached to copper leads. The local p-n E. HERNÁNDEZ, A. ROMERO Laboratorio de Caracterización de Materiales, Departamento de Física, Facultad Experimental de Ciencias, La Universidad del Zulia, Maracaibo, Venezuela Current Density-Voltage and Capacitance-Voltage Characteristics of Local p-n Junction Structures in CuInSe 2 Single Crystals