Design of Metastable Tin Titanium Nitride Semiconductor Alloys

Bikowski, Andre; Siol, Sebastian; Gu, Jing; Holder, Aaron; Mangum, John S.; Gorman, Brian; Tumas, William; Lany, Stephan; Zakutayev, Andriy

doi:10.1021/acs.chemmater.7b02122

Title: Design of Metastable Tin Titanium Nitride Semiconductor Alloys

Journal Article · Fri Jul 07 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Chemistry of Materials

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemmater.7b02122· OSTI ID:1375624

Bikowski, Andre ^[1];

^[2]; Gu, Jing ^[3]; Holder, Aaron ^[1]; Mangum, John S. ^[4]; Gorman, Brian ^[4]; Tumas, William ^[1]; Lany, Stephan ^[1];

^[1]

National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); San Diego State Univ., San Diego, CA (United States)
National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Swiss Federal Labs. for Material Science and Technology, Dubendorf (Switzerland)
Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO (United States)

Here, we report on design of optoelectronic properties in previously unreported metastable tin titanium nitride alloys with spinel crystal structure. Theoretical calculations predict that Ti alloying in metastable Sn₃N₄ compound should improve hole effective mass by up to 1 order of magnitude, while other optical bandgaps remains in the 1–2 eV range up to x ~ 0.35 Ti composition. Experimental synthesis of these metastable alloys is predicted to be challenging due to high required nitrogen chemical potential (Δμ_N ≥ +1.0 eV) but proven to be possible using combinatorial cosputtering from metal targets in the presence of nitrogen plasma. Characterization experiments confirm that thin films of such (Sn_1–xTi_x)₃N₄ alloys can be synthesized up to x = 0.45 composition, with suitable optical band gaps (1.5–2.0 eV), moderate electron densities (10¹⁷ to 10¹⁸ cm^–3), and improved photogenerated hole transport (by 5×). Overall, this study shows that it is possible to design the metastable nitride materials with properties suitable for potential use in solar energy conversion applications.

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Research Organization:: National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) (United States). Center for Next Generation of Materials by Design: Incorporating Metastability (CNGMD)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC36-08GO28308

OSTI ID:: 1375624

Report Number(s):: NREL/JA-5K00-66841

Journal Information:: Chemistry of Materials, Vol. 29, Issue 15; ISSN 0897-4756

Publisher:: American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 22 works

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