Photoluminescence Imaging Characterization of Thin-Film InP

Conference · Sun Jun 14 00:00:00 EDT 2015

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/PVSC.2015.7356201· OSTI ID:1250669

Johnston, Steve; Allende Motz, Alyssa; Moore, James; Zheng, Maxwell; Javey, Ali; Bermel, Peter

Indium phosphide grown using a novel vapor-liquid-solid method is a promising low-cost material for III-V single-junction photovoltaics. In this work, we characterize the properties of these materials using photoluminescence (PL) imaging, time-resolved photoluminescence (TRPL), and microwave-reflection photoconductive decay (u-PCD). PL image data clearly shows the emergence of a self-similar dendritic growth network from nucleation sites, while zoomed-in images show grain structure and grain boundaries. Single photon TRPL data shows initial surface-dominated recombination, while two-photon excitation TRPL shows a lifetime of 10 ns. Bulk carrier lifetime may be as long as 35 ns as measured by u-PCD, which can be less sensitive to surface recombination.

• Research Organization: National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
• DOE Contract Number: AC36-08GO28308
• OSTI ID: 1250669
• Report Number(s): NREL/CP-5K00-63616
• Resource Relation: Conference: Presented at the 2015 IEEE 42nd Photovoltaic Specialist Conference (PVSC), 14-19 June 2015, New Orleans, Louisiana; Related Information: Proceedings of the 2015 IEEE 42nd Photovoltaic Specialist Conference (PVSC), 14-19 June 2015, New Orleans, Louisiana
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
charge carrier lifetime
grain boundaries
imaging
indium phosphide
photoconductivity
photoluminescence
photovoltaic cells