Growth of lattice-matched GaInAsP grown on vicinal GaAs(001) substrates within the miscibility gap for solar cells

Oshima, Ryuji; France, Ryan M.; Geisz, John F.; Norman, Andrew G.; Steiner, Myles A.

doi:10.1016/j.jcrysgro.2016.10.025

Title: Growth of lattice-matched GaInAsP grown on vicinal GaAs(001) substrates within the miscibility gap for solar cells

Journal Article · Thu Oct 13 00:00:00 EDT 2016 · Journal of Crystal Growth

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrysgro.2016.10.025· OSTI ID:1334744

Oshima, Ryuji ^[1]; France, Ryan M. ^[2]; Geisz, John F. ^[2]; Norman, Andrew G. ^[2]; Steiner, Myles A. ^[2]

National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); National Inst. of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Tsukuba (Japan)
National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

The growth of quaternary Ga_0.68In_0.32As_0.35P_0.65 by metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy is very sensitive to growth conditions because the composition is within a miscibility gap. In this investigation, we fabricated 1 um-thick lattice-matched GaInAsP films grown on GaAs(001) for application to solar cells. In order to characterize the effect of the surface diffusion of adatoms on the material quality of alloys, the growth temperature and substrate miscut are varied. Transmission electron microscopy and two-dimensional in-situ multi-beam optical stress determine that growth temperatures of 650 degrees C and below enhance the formation of the CuPtB atomic ordering and suppress material decomposition, which is found to occur at the growth surface. The root-mean-square (RMS) roughness is reduced from 33.6 nm for 750 degrees C to 1.62 nm for 650 degrees C, determined by atomic force microscopy. Our initial investigations show that the RMS roughness can be further reduced using increased miscut angle, and substrates miscut toward (111)A, leading to an RMS roughness of 0.56 nm for the sample grown at 600 degrees C on GaAs miscut 6 degrees toward (111)A. Using these conditions, we fabricate an inverted hetero-junction 1.62 eV Ga_0.68In_0.32As_0.35P_0.65 solar cell without an anti-reflection coating with a short-circuit current density, open-circuit voltage, fill factor, and efficiency of 12.23 mA/cm2, 1.12 V, 86.18%, and 11.80%, respectively.

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

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC36-08GO28308

OSTI ID:: 1334744

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1396675

Report Number(s):: NREL/JA-5J00-67514

Journal Information:: Journal of Crystal Growth, Vol. 458; ISSN 0022-0248

Publisher:: ElsevierCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 16 works

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Stability of rolled-up GaAs nanotubes Silva, Júnio C. F.; dos Santos, José D.; Taft, Carlton A. Journal of Molecular Modeling, Vol. 23, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00894-017-3371-3	journal	June 2017
Pathway to 50% efficient inverted metamorphic concentrator solar cells Geisz, John F.; Steiner, Myles A.; Jain, Nikhil 13TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CONCENTRATOR PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEMS (CPV-13), AIP Conference Proceedings https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5001425	conference	January 2017
Growth of InGaAs Solar Cells on InP(001) Miscut Substrates Using Solid‐Source Molecular Beam Epitaxy Oshima, Ryuji; Ishitsuka, Yuki; Okano, Yoshinobu physica status solidi (a), Vol. 217, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1002/pssa.201900512	journal	September 2019

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