Combinatorial Insights into Doping Control and Transport Properties of Zinc Tin Nitride

doi:https://doi.org/10.1039/C5TC02663F

Title: Combinatorial Insights into Doping Control and Transport Properties of Zinc Tin Nitride

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Abstract

ZnSnN ₂ is an Earth-abundant semiconductor analogous to the III–nitrides with potential as a solar absorber due to its direct bandgap, steep absorption onset, and disorder-driven bandgap tunability. Despite these desirable properties, discrepancies in the fundamental bandgap and degenerate n-type carrier density have been prevalent issues in the limited amount of literature available on this material. We we use a combinatorial RF co-sputtering approach, we explored a growth-temperature-composition space for Zn _1+xSn _1-xN ₂over the ranges 35–340 °C and 0.30–0.75 Zn/(Zn + Sn). In this way, we identified an optimal set of deposition parameters for obtaining as-deposited films with wurtzite crystal structure and carrier density as low as 1.8 × 10 ¹⁸ cm ^-3. Films grown at 230 °C with Zn/(Zn + Sn) = 0.60 were found to have the largest grain size overall (70 nm diameter on average) while also exhibiting low carrier density (3 × 10 ¹⁸ cm ^-3) and high mobility (8.3 cm ² V ^-1 s ^-1). Using this approach, we establish the direct bandgap of cation-disordered ZnSnN ₂ at 1.0 eV. Moreover, we report tunable carrier density as a function of cation composition, in which lower carrier density is observed for higher Zn content.more »« less

Authors:

Fioretti, Angela N. ^[1]; Zakutayev, Andriy ^[2]; Moutinho, Helio ^[2]; Melamed, Celeste ^[3]; Perkins, John D. ^[2]; Norman, Andrew G. ^[2]; Al-Jassim, Mowafak ^[2]; Toberer, Eric S. ^[1]; Tamboli, Adele C. ^[1]

National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO (United States)
National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA (United States)

Publication Date:: 2015-09-21

Research Org.:: National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Solar Energy Technologies Office (EE-4S)

OSTI Identifier:: 1227680

Report Number(s):: NREL/JA-5J00-64356
Journal ID: ISSN 2050-7526

DOE Contract Number:: AC36-08GO28308

Resource Type:: Journal Article

Journal Name:: Journal of Materials Chemistry. C

Additional Journal Information:: Journal Volume: 3; Journal Issue: 42; Related Information: Journal of Materials Chemistry C; Journal ID: ISSN 2050-7526

Publisher:: Royal Society of Chemistry

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Subject:: 14 SOLAR ENERGY; 36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; direct bandgap; wurtzite crystal structure; carrier density; zinc tin nitride; Zn-Sn-N

Citation Formats


                    Fioretti, Angela N., Zakutayev, Andriy, Moutinho, Helio, Melamed, Celeste, Perkins, John D., Norman, Andrew G., Al-Jassim, Mowafak, Toberer, Eric S., and Tamboli, Adele C. Combinatorial Insights into Doping Control and Transport Properties of Zinc Tin Nitride.  United States: N. p., 2015. 
        Web.  doi:10.1039/C5TC02663F.

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                    Fioretti, Angela N., Zakutayev, Andriy, Moutinho, Helio, Melamed, Celeste, Perkins, John D., Norman, Andrew G., Al-Jassim, Mowafak, Toberer, Eric S., & Tamboli, Adele C. Combinatorial Insights into Doping Control and Transport Properties of Zinc Tin Nitride.  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1039/C5TC02663F

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                    Fioretti, Angela N., Zakutayev, Andriy, Moutinho, Helio, Melamed, Celeste, Perkins, John D., Norman, Andrew G., Al-Jassim, Mowafak, Toberer, Eric S., and Tamboli, Adele C. Mon .  
        "Combinatorial Insights into Doping Control and Transport Properties of Zinc Tin Nitride".  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1039/C5TC02663F.

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@article{osti_1227680,

  title        = {Combinatorial Insights into Doping Control and Transport Properties of Zinc Tin Nitride},

  author       = {Fioretti, Angela N. and Zakutayev, Andriy and Moutinho, Helio and Melamed, Celeste and Perkins, John D. and Norman, Andrew G. and Al-Jassim, Mowafak and Toberer, Eric S. and Tamboli, Adele C.},

  abstractNote = {ZnSnN2 is an Earth-abundant semiconductor analogous to the III–nitrides with potential as a solar absorber due to its direct bandgap, steep absorption onset, and disorder-driven bandgap tunability. Despite these desirable properties, discrepancies in the fundamental bandgap and degenerate n-type carrier density have been prevalent issues in the limited amount of literature available on this material. We we use a combinatorial RF co-sputtering approach, we explored a growth-temperature-composition space for Zn1+xSn1-xN2 over the ranges 35–340 °C and 0.30–0.75 Zn/(Zn + Sn). In this way, we identified an optimal set of deposition parameters for obtaining as-deposited films with wurtzite crystal structure and carrier density as low as 1.8 × 1018 cm-3. Films grown at 230 °C with Zn/(Zn + Sn) = 0.60 were found to have the largest grain size overall (70 nm diameter on average) while also exhibiting low carrier density (3 × 1018 cm-3) and high mobility (8.3 cm2 V-1 s-1). Using this approach, we establish the direct bandgap of cation-disordered ZnSnN2 at 1.0 eV. Moreover, we report tunable carrier density as a function of cation composition, in which lower carrier density is observed for higher Zn content. Consequently, this relationship manifests as a Burstein–Moss shift widening the apparent bandgap as cation composition moves away from Zn-rich. Collectively, these findings provide important insight into the fundamental properties of the Zn–Sn–N material system and highlight the potential to utilize ZnSnN2 for photovoltaics.},

  doi          = {10.1039/C5TC02663F},

  url          = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1227680},
  journal      = {Journal of Materials Chemistry. C},

  issn         = {2050-7526},

  number       = 42,

  volume       = 3,

  place        = {United States},

  year         = {2015},

  month        = {9}

}

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