Impact of extended defects on recombination in CdTe heterostructures grown by molecular beam epitaxy
Abstract
Heterostructures with CdTe and CdTe1-xSex (x ~ 0.01) absorbers between two wider-band-gap Cd1-xMgxTe barriers (x ~ 0.25–0.3) were grown by molecular beam epitaxy to study carrier generation and recombination in bulk materials with passivated interfaces. Using a combination of confocal photoluminescence (PL), time-resolved PL, and low-temperature PL emission spectroscopy, two extended defect types were identified and the impact of these defects on charge-carrier recombination was analyzed. Here, the dominant defects identified by confocal PL were dislocations in samples grown on (211)B CdTe substrates and crystallographic twinning-related defects in samples on (100)-oriented InSb substrates. Low-temperature PL shows that twin-related defects have a zero-phonon energy of 1.460 eV and a Huang-Rhys factor of 1.50, while dislocation-dominated samples have a 1.473-eV zero-phonon energy and a Huang-Rhys factor of 1.22. The charge carrier diffusion length near both types of defects is ~6 μm, suggesting that recombination is limited by diffusion dynamics. For heterostructures with a low concentration of extended defects, the bulk lifetime was determined to be 2.2 μs with an interface recombination velocity of 160 cm/s and an estimated radiative lifetime of 91 μs.
- Authors:
-
- Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO (United States); National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- Texas State Univ., San Marcos, TX (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1326171
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1312053
- Report Number(s):
- NREL/JA-5K00-67149
Journal ID: ISSN 0003-6951; APPLAB
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC36-08GO28308
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Applied Physics Letters
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 109; Journal Issue: 9; Journal ID: ISSN 0003-6951
- Publisher:
- American Institute of Physics (AIP)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 14 SOLAR ENERGY; 71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS; photoluminescence; epitaxy; II-VI semiconductors; diffusion; III-V semiconductors; emission spectroscopy; semiconductors; lasers; electronic devices; charge recombination; time-resolved photoluminescence; atomic force microscopy; heterostructures; phonons
Citation Formats
Zaunbrecher, Katherine N., Kuciauskas, Darius, Swartz, Craig H., Dippo, Pat, Edirisooriya, Madhavie, Ogedengbe, Olanrewaju S., Sohal, Sandeep, Hancock, Bobby L., LeBlanc, Elizabeth G., Jayathilaka, Pathiraja A. R. D., Barnes, Teresa M., and Myers, Thomas H. Impact of extended defects on recombination in CdTe heterostructures grown by molecular beam epitaxy. United States: N. p., 2016.
Web. doi:10.1063/1.4961989.
Zaunbrecher, Katherine N., Kuciauskas, Darius, Swartz, Craig H., Dippo, Pat, Edirisooriya, Madhavie, Ogedengbe, Olanrewaju S., Sohal, Sandeep, Hancock, Bobby L., LeBlanc, Elizabeth G., Jayathilaka, Pathiraja A. R. D., Barnes, Teresa M., & Myers, Thomas H. Impact of extended defects on recombination in CdTe heterostructures grown by molecular beam epitaxy. United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4961989
Zaunbrecher, Katherine N., Kuciauskas, Darius, Swartz, Craig H., Dippo, Pat, Edirisooriya, Madhavie, Ogedengbe, Olanrewaju S., Sohal, Sandeep, Hancock, Bobby L., LeBlanc, Elizabeth G., Jayathilaka, Pathiraja A. R. D., Barnes, Teresa M., and Myers, Thomas H. Mon .
"Impact of extended defects on recombination in CdTe heterostructures grown by molecular beam epitaxy". United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4961989. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1326171.
@article{osti_1326171,
title = {Impact of extended defects on recombination in CdTe heterostructures grown by molecular beam epitaxy},
author = {Zaunbrecher, Katherine N. and Kuciauskas, Darius and Swartz, Craig H. and Dippo, Pat and Edirisooriya, Madhavie and Ogedengbe, Olanrewaju S. and Sohal, Sandeep and Hancock, Bobby L. and LeBlanc, Elizabeth G. and Jayathilaka, Pathiraja A. R. D. and Barnes, Teresa M. and Myers, Thomas H.},
abstractNote = {Heterostructures with CdTe and CdTe1-xSex (x ~ 0.01) absorbers between two wider-band-gap Cd1-xMgxTe barriers (x ~ 0.25–0.3) were grown by molecular beam epitaxy to study carrier generation and recombination in bulk materials with passivated interfaces. Using a combination of confocal photoluminescence (PL), time-resolved PL, and low-temperature PL emission spectroscopy, two extended defect types were identified and the impact of these defects on charge-carrier recombination was analyzed. Here, the dominant defects identified by confocal PL were dislocations in samples grown on (211)B CdTe substrates and crystallographic twinning-related defects in samples on (100)-oriented InSb substrates. Low-temperature PL shows that twin-related defects have a zero-phonon energy of 1.460 eV and a Huang-Rhys factor of 1.50, while dislocation-dominated samples have a 1.473-eV zero-phonon energy and a Huang-Rhys factor of 1.22. The charge carrier diffusion length near both types of defects is ~6 μm, suggesting that recombination is limited by diffusion dynamics. For heterostructures with a low concentration of extended defects, the bulk lifetime was determined to be 2.2 μs with an interface recombination velocity of 160 cm/s and an estimated radiative lifetime of 91 μs.},
doi = {10.1063/1.4961989},
journal = {Applied Physics Letters},
number = 9,
volume = 109,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Aug 29 00:00:00 EDT 2016},
month = {Mon Aug 29 00:00:00 EDT 2016}
}
Web of Science
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