Suppression of compensating native defect formation during semiconductor processing via excess carriers
Abstract
In many semiconductors, compensating defects set doping limits, decrease carrier mobility, and reduce minority carrier lifetime thus limiting their utility in devices. Native defects are often responsible. Suppressing the concentrations of compensating defects during processing close to thermal equilibrium is difficult because formation enthalpies are lowered as the Fermi level moves towards the majority band edge. Excess carriers, introduced for example by photogeneration, modify the formation enthalpy of semiconductor defects and thus can be harnessed during crystal growth or annealing to suppress defect populations. Herein we develop a rigorous and general model for defect formation in the presence of steady-state excess carrier concentrations by combining the standard quasi-chemical formalism with a detailed-balance description that is applicable for any defect state in the bandgap. Considering the quasi-Fermi levels as chemical potentials, we demonstrate that increasing the minority carrier concentration increases the formation enthalpy for typical compensating centers, thus suppressing their formation. Furthermore, this effect is illustrated for the specific example of GaSb. While our treatment is generalized for excess carrier injection or generation in semiconductors by any means, we provide a set of guidelines for applying the concept in photoassisted physical vapor deposition.
- Authors:
-
- National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1260143
- Report Number(s):
- NREL/JA-5K00-66494
Journal ID: ISSN 2045-2322
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC36-08GO28308
- Resource Type:
- Journal Article: Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Scientific Reports
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 6; Journal ID: ISSN 2045-2322
- Publisher:
- Nature Publishing Group
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 14 SOLAR ENERGY; 71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS; semiconductors; defects; processing; electronic devices
Citation Formats
Alberi, Kirstin, and Scarpulla, M. A. Suppression of compensating native defect formation during semiconductor processing via excess carriers. United States: N. p., 2016.
Web. doi:10.1038/srep27954.
Alberi, Kirstin, & Scarpulla, M. A. Suppression of compensating native defect formation during semiconductor processing via excess carriers. United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep27954
Alberi, Kirstin, and Scarpulla, M. A. 2016.
"Suppression of compensating native defect formation during semiconductor processing via excess carriers". United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep27954. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1260143.
@article{osti_1260143,
title = {Suppression of compensating native defect formation during semiconductor processing via excess carriers},
author = {Alberi, Kirstin and Scarpulla, M. A.},
abstractNote = {In many semiconductors, compensating defects set doping limits, decrease carrier mobility, and reduce minority carrier lifetime thus limiting their utility in devices. Native defects are often responsible. Suppressing the concentrations of compensating defects during processing close to thermal equilibrium is difficult because formation enthalpies are lowered as the Fermi level moves towards the majority band edge. Excess carriers, introduced for example by photogeneration, modify the formation enthalpy of semiconductor defects and thus can be harnessed during crystal growth or annealing to suppress defect populations. Herein we develop a rigorous and general model for defect formation in the presence of steady-state excess carrier concentrations by combining the standard quasi-chemical formalism with a detailed-balance description that is applicable for any defect state in the bandgap. Considering the quasi-Fermi levels as chemical potentials, we demonstrate that increasing the minority carrier concentration increases the formation enthalpy for typical compensating centers, thus suppressing their formation. Furthermore, this effect is illustrated for the specific example of GaSb. While our treatment is generalized for excess carrier injection or generation in semiconductors by any means, we provide a set of guidelines for applying the concept in photoassisted physical vapor deposition.},
doi = {10.1038/srep27954},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1260143},
journal = {Scientific Reports},
issn = {2045-2322},
number = ,
volume = 6,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue Jun 21 00:00:00 EDT 2016},
month = {Tue Jun 21 00:00:00 EDT 2016}
}
Web of Science
Works referenced in this record:
Fermi Level Control of Point Defects During Growth of Mg-Doped GaN
journal, December 2012
- Bryan, Zachary; Hoffmann, Marc; Tweedie, James
- Journal of Electronic Materials, Vol. 42, Issue 5
Surface stoichiometry and reaction kinetics of molecular beam epitaxially grown (001) CdTe surfaces
journal, October 1986
- Benson, J. D.; Wagner, B. K.; Torabi, A.
- Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 49, Issue 16
Recombination-Enhanced Reactions in Semiconductors
journal, August 1982
- Lang, D. V.
- Annual Review of Materials Science, Vol. 12, Issue 1
First-principles calculations for defects and impurities: Applications to III-nitrides
journal, April 2004
- Van de Walle, Chris G.; Neugebauer, Jörg
- Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 95, Issue 8
Band Structure and Transport Properties of Some 3–5 Compounds
journal, October 1961
- Ehrenreich, H.
- Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 32, Issue 10
F centre production in alkali halides by radiationless electron hole recombination
journal, September 1965
- Pooley, D.
- Solid State Communications, Vol. 3, Issue 9
Native defects and self-diffusion in GaSb
journal, April 2002
- Hakala, M.; Puska, M. J.; Nieminen, R. M.
- Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 91, Issue 8
Comparative study of ab initio nonradiative recombination rate calculations under different formalisms
journal, May 2015
- Shi, Lin; Xu, Ke; Wang, Lin-Wang
- Physical Review B, Vol. 91, Issue 20
Molecular-beam epitaxial growth of high-mobility n-GaSb
journal, May 1993
- Turner, G. W.
- Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology B: Microelectronics and Nanometer Structures, Vol. 11, Issue 3
Chemical potential dependence of defect formation energies in GaAs: Application to Ga self-diffusion
journal, October 1991
- Zhang, S.; Northrup, John
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 67, Issue 17
Fermi level control of compensating point defects during metalorganic chemical vapor deposition growth of Si-doped AlGaN
journal, December 2014
- Bryan, Zachary; Bryan, Isaac; Gaddy, Benjamin E.
- Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 105, Issue 22
A detailed Hall‐effect analysis of sulfur‐doped gallium antimonide grown by molecular‐beam epitaxy
journal, July 1990
- Lee, M. E.; Poole, I.; Truscott, W. S.
- Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 68, Issue 1
Nonequilibrium Steady-State Statistics and Associated Effects for Insulators and Semiconductors Containing an Arbitrary Distribution of Traps
journal, July 1971
- Simmons, J. G.; Taylor, G. W.
- Physical Review B, Vol. 4, Issue 2
Observation of Recombination-Enhanced Defect Reactions in Semiconductors
journal, August 1974
- Lang, D. V.; Kimerling, L. C.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 33, Issue 8
Fermi energy tuning with light to control doping profiles during epitaxy
journal, May 2015
- Sanders, C. E.; Beaton, D. A.; Reedy, R. C.
- Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 106, Issue 18
Recombination enhanced defect reactions
journal, November 1978
- Kimerling, L. C.
- Solid-State Electronics, Vol. 21, Issue 11-12
Native point defects in GaSb
journal, October 2014
- Kujala, J.; Segercrantz, N.; Tuomisto, F.
- Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 116, Issue 14
Materials modification by electronic excitation
journal, December 2000
- Stoneham, A. M.; Itoh, Noriaki
- Applied Surface Science, Vol. 168, Issue 1-4
Photo-assisted MBE growth of ZnSe crystals
journal, February 1989
- Ohishi, M.; Saito, H.; Okano, H.
- Journal of Crystal Growth, Vol. 95, Issue 1-4
Photo-assisted homoepitaxial growth of ZnS by molecular beam epitaxy
journal, April 1990
- Kitagawa, M.; Tomomura, Y.; Nakanishi, K.
- Journal of Crystal Growth, Vol. 101, Issue 1-4
Electron-beam induced degradation in CdTe photovoltaics
journal, August 2000
- Harju, R.; Karpov, V. G.; Grecu, D.
- Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 88, Issue 4
Arsenic‐doped CdTe epilayers grown by photoassisted molecular beam epitaxy
journal, January 1989
- Harper, R. L.; Hwang, S.; Giles, N. C.
- Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 54, Issue 2
Photoassisted growth of II–VI semiconductor films
journal, February 1995
- Fujita, Shizuo; Fujita, Shigeo
- Applied Surface Science, Vol. 86, Issue 1-4
Statistics of the Charge Distribution for a Localized Flaw in a Semiconductor
journal, July 1957
- Shockley, W.; Last, J. T.
- Physical Review, Vol. 107, Issue 2
Electron-Hole Recombination in Germanium
journal, July 1952
- Hall, R. N.
- Physical Review, Vol. 87, Issue 2
The physics and technology of gallium antimonide: An emerging optoelectronic material
journal, May 1997
- Dutta, P. S.; Bhat, H. L.; Kumar, Vikram
- Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 81, Issue 9
Reduction of compensating defects in ZnSe and ZnS by photo-irradiation
journal, February 1992
- Ichimura, Masaya; Wada, Takao; Fujita, Shizuo
- Journal of Crystal Growth, Vol. 117, Issue 1-4
Model of native point defect equilibrium in Cu 2 ZnSnS 4 and application to one-zone annealing
journal, September 2013
- Kosyak, V.; Mortazavi Amiri, N. B.; Postnikov, A. V.
- Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 114, Issue 12
How Solar Cells Work
conference, January 2010
- Würfel, Peter
- Optical Nanostructures for Photovoltaics, Advanced Photonics & Renewable Energy
Point defect management in GaN by Fermi-level control during growth
conference, March 2014
- Hoffmann, Marc P.; Tweedie, James; Kirste, Ronny
- SPIE OPTO, SPIE Proceedings
Laser irradiation during MBE growth of ZnSxSe1−x: A new growth parameter
journal, April 1990
- Matsumura, Nobuo; Fukada, Takashi; Saraie, Junji
- Journal of Crystal Growth, Vol. 101, Issue 1-4
Native defects and self-diffusion in GaSb
journal, April 2002
- Hakala, M.; Puska, M. J.; Nieminen, R. M.
- Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 91, Issue 8
Native point defects in GaSb
journal, October 2014
- Kujala, J.; Segercrantz, N.; Tuomisto, F.
- Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 116, Issue 14
Mechanism of Fermi-level stabilization in semiconductors
journal, March 1988
- Walukiewicz, W.
- Physical Review B, Vol. 37, Issue 9
Native point defect energetics in GaSb: Enabling -type conductivity of undoped GaSb
journal, October 2012
- Virkkala, Ville; Havu, Ville; Tuomisto, Filip
- Physical Review B, Vol. 86, Issue 14
Microscopic Origin of the Phenomenological Equilibrium “Doping Limit Rule” in -Type III-V Semiconductors
journal, February 2000
- Zhang, S. B.; Wei, S. -H.; Zunger, Alex
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 84, Issue 6
Works referencing / citing this record:
Defect interactions and the role of complexes in the CdTe solar cell absorber
journal, January 2017
- Krasikov, Dmitry; Sankin, Igor
- Journal of Materials Chemistry A, Vol. 5, Issue 7
Perforated N-doped monoclinic ZnWO 4 nanorods for efficient photocatalytic hydrogen generation and RhB degradation under natural sunlight
journal, January 2018
- Sethi, Yogesh A.; Praveen, C. S.; Panmand, Rajendra P.
- Catalysis Science & Technology, Vol. 8, Issue 11
Novel doping alternatives for single-layer transition metal dichalcogenides
journal, November 2017
- Onofrio, Nicolas; Guzman, David; Strachan, Alejandro
- Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 122, Issue 18
Effects of excess carriers on charged defect concentrations in wide bandgap semiconductors
journal, May 2018
- Alberi, Kirstin; Scarpulla, Michael A.
- Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 123, Issue 18
On the predictive, quantitative properties of the amphoteric native defect model
journal, September 2019
- Svensson, Stefan P.; Sarney, Wendy L.; Beck, William A.
- Semiconductor Science and Technology, Vol. 34, Issue 10
Defects in epilayers via molecular beam epitaxy and strategies for reducing them
journal, December 2019
- Rice, A. D.; Park, K.; Hughes, E. T.
- Physical Review Materials, Vol. 3, Issue 12
Novel doping alternatives for single-layer transition metal dichalcogenides
text, January 2017
- Onofrio, Nicolas; Guzman, David; Strachan, Alejandro
- arXiv