Features of Energy Spectrum of Pb$\text{}_{1-x}$Mn$\text{}_{x}$Te Doped with V

Recently new effects that are not characteristic of undoped lead telluride, such as the Fermi level pinning, giant negative magnetoresistance, were observed in Pb$\text{}_{1-x}$Mn$\text{}_{x}$Te alloys doped with transition and rare earth elements - Cr, Mo, Yb. We have studied transport and magnetic properties of Pb$\text{}_{1-x}$Mn$\text{}_{x}$Te doped with another transition element - vanadium. A series of Pb$\text{}_{1-x}$Mn$\text{}_{x}$Te(V) samples of different composition and degree of doping was investigated. It was observed that the resistivity demonstrates activation behavior at low temperatures for the samples with considerable amount of vanadium as well as for the samples without vanadium. The activation energy is proportional to the Mn content. In some of the samples, photoconductivity was observed at low temperatures. The results are discussed in terms of a model assuming formation of the impurity level by the vanadium impurity and the effect of the Fermi level pinning by this level.