Analysis of performance-limiting defects in $pn$ junction GaAs solar cells grown by water-mediated close-spaced vapor transport epitaxy

Boucher, J. W.; Greenaway, A. L.; Egelhofer, K. E.; Boettcher, S. W.

doi:10.1016/j.solmat.2016.10.004

Title: Analysis of performance-limiting defects in $pn$ junction GaAs solar cells grown by water-mediated close-spaced vapor transport epitaxy

Journal Article · Thu Oct 13 00:00:00 EDT 2016 · Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solmat.2016.10.004· OSTI ID:1534333

Boucher, J. W. ^[1]; Greenaway, A. L. ^[1]; Egelhofer, K. E. ^[1]; Boettcher, S. W. ^[1]

University of Oregon, Eugene, OR (United States)

Precursor and substrate costs currently limit the adoption of III-V photovoltaics for large scale manufacturing. In this paper we use water-mediated close-spaced vapor transport (CSVT) to produce homojunction GaAs devices with pressed GaAs powder as an alternative to expensive gas-phase precursors. These unpassivated devices reach V_oc >910 mV, demonstrating the plausibility of CSVT as an alternative method for growth of III-V epitaxial films for photovoltaic devices. We find that Zn-doping of the absorber films decreases after a number of growths cycles using a single source, which suggests an alternative transport agent should be investigated for p-type doping. Performance of these solar cells is largely limited by formation of macroscopic surface defects which we find to be caused by particulate transfer from the source material and the formation of oxide phases during growth. We present strategies for mitigating these defects and improving device performance.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

View Accepted Manuscript (Publisher)

Cite

Export

Save

Research Organization:: Univ. of Oregon, Eugene, OR (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE); Research Corporation for Scientific Advancement

Grant/Contract Number:: EE0005957

OSTI ID:: 1534333

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1396831

Journal Information:: Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, Vol. 159, Issue C; ISSN 0927-0248

Publisher:: ElsevierCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Citation Metrics:

Cited by: 10 works

Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (36)

Si Contamination in Open Flow Quartz Systems for the Growth of GaAs and GaP Weiner, M. E. Journal of The Electrochemical Society, Vol. 119, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1149/1.2404238	journal	January 1972
Preparation of Epitaxial GaAs and GaP Films by Vapor Phase Reaction Moest, R. R.; Shupp, B. R. Journal of The Electrochemical Society, Vol. 109, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1149/1.2425236	journal	January 1962
Oxygen in gallium arsenide Bourgoin, J. C.; Stievenard, D.; Deresmes, D. Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 69, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.347710	journal	January 1991
The Use of Close Spacing in Chemical-Transport Systems for Growing Epitaxial Layers of Semiconductors Nicoll, F. H. Journal of The Electrochemical Society, Vol. 110, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1149/1.2425614	journal	January 1963
Growth Model of Oval Defect Structures in MBE GaAs Layers Kadhim, N. J.; Mukherjee, D. Journal of Materials Science Letters, Vol. 18, Issue 3, p. 229-232 https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006617408604	journal	January 1999
Preferential Etching of GaAs Through Photoresist Masks Otsubo, Mutsuyuki; Oda, Takao; Kumabe, Hisao Journal of The Electrochemical Society, Vol. 123, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1149/1.2132908	journal	May 1976
Vapor Phase Transport and Epitaxial Growth of GaAs[sub 1−x]P[sub x] Using Water Vapor Gottlieb, G. E. Journal of The Electrochemical Society, Vol. 112, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1149/1.2423493	journal	January 1965
The Transport of Gallium Arsenide in the Vapor Phase by Chemical Reaction Fergusson, R. R.; Gabor, T. Journal of The Electrochemical Society, Vol. 111, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1149/1.2426188	journal	January 1964
High‐Temperature Vaporization Behavior of Oxides II. Oxides of Be, Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba, B, Al, Ga, In, Tl, Si, Ge, Sn, Pb, Zn, Cd, and Hg Lamoreaux, R. H.; Hildenbrand, D. L.; Brewer, L. Journal of Physical and Chemical Reference Data, Vol. 16, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.555799	journal	July 1987
EL2 trends in As‐rich GaAs grown by close‐spaced vapor transport Lombos, B. A.; Bretagnon, T.; Jean, A. Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 67, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.345617	journal	February 1990
Silicon solar cells with total area efficiency above 25 % Smith, David D.; Reich, Gerly; Baldrias, Maristel 2016 IEEE 43rd Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC) https://doi.org/10.1109/PVSC.2016.7750287	conference	June 2016
Microstructure studies of AuNiGe Ohmic contacts to n-type GaAs Murakami, Masanori; Childs, K. D.; Baker, John M. Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology B: Microelectronics Processing and Phenomena, Vol. 4, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1116/1.583535	journal	July 1986
Optimization of the surface morphology of GaAs epitaxial layers grown by close-spaced vapor transport Huang, Z.; Guelton, N.; Cossement, D. Canadian Journal of Physics, Vol. 71, Issue 9-10 https://doi.org/10.1139/p93-072	journal	September 1993
Toward the Practical Limits of Silicon Solar Cells Smith, David D.; Cousins, Peter; Westerberg, Staffan IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics, Vol. 4, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1109/JPHOTOV.2014.2350695	journal	November 2014
The Epitaxy of ZnSe on Ge, GaAs, and ZnSe by an HCl Close-Spaced Transport Process Hovel, H. J.; Milnes, A. G. Journal of The Electrochemical Society, Vol. 116, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1149/1.2412075	journal	January 1969
A survey of ohmic contacts to III-V compound semiconductors Baca, A. G.; Ren, F.; Zolper, J. C. Thin Solid Films, Vol. 308-309 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0040-6090(97)00439-2	journal	October 1997
GaAs Solar Cells Grown by Hydride Vapor-Phase Epitaxy and the Development of GaInP Cladding Layers Simon, John; Schulte, Kevin L.; Young, David L. IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics, Vol. 6, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1109/JPHOTOV.2015.2501723	journal	January 2016
Source and elimination of oval defects on GaAs films grown by molecular beam epitaxy Chai, Young G.; Chow, Robert Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 38, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.92167	journal	May 1981
Impurity incorporation during epitaxial growth of GaAs by chemical reaction Gandouzi, M.; Bourgoin, J. C.; Mimila-Arroyo, J. Journal of Crystal Growth, Vol. 218, Issue 2-4 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-0248(00)00536-4	journal	September 2000
A GaAs Nanowire Array Solar Cell With 15.3% Efficiency at 1 Sun Aberg, Ingvar; Vescovi, Giuliano; Asoli, Damir IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics, Vol. 6, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1109/JPHOTOV.2015.2484967	journal	January 2016
Doping and residual impurities in GaAs layers grown by close‐spaced vapor transport Le Bel, C.; Cossement, D.; Dodelet, J. P. Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 73, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.353246	journal	February 1993
Structure Analysis of Oval Defect on Molecular Beam Epitaxial GaAs Layer by Cross-Sectional Transmission Electron Microscopy Observation Kakibayashi, Hiroshi; Nagata, Fumio; Katayama, Yoshifumi Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 23, Issue Part 2, No. 11 https://doi.org/10.1143/JJAP.23.L846	journal	November 1984
Continuous gas-phase synthesis of nanowires with tunable properties Heurlin, Magnus; Magnusson, Martin H.; Lindgren, David Nature, Vol. 492, Issue 7427, p. 90-94 https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11652	journal	November 2012
The Epitaxial Growth of GaP by a Ga[sub 2]O Vapor Transport Mechanism Frosch, C. J. Journal of The Electrochemical Society, Vol. 111, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1149/1.2426079	journal	January 1964
Doping and electronic properties of GaAs grown by close-spaced vapor transport from powder sources for scalable III–V photovoltaics Ritenour, Andrew J.; Boucher, Jason W.; DeLancey, Robert Energy & Environmental Science, Vol. 8, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1039/C4EE01943A	journal	January 2015
Efficient n -GaAs Photoelectrodes Grown by Close-Spaced Vapor Transport from a Solid Source Ritenour, Andrew J.; Cramer, Richard C.; Levinrad, Solomon ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, Vol. 4, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1021/am201631p	journal	December 2011
Gallium arsenide phosphide grown by close-spaced vapor transport from mixed powder sources for low-cost III–V photovoltaic and photoelectrochemical devices Greenaway, Ann L.; Davis, Allison L.; Boucher, Jason W. Journal of Materials Chemistry A, Vol. 4, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1039/C5TA06900A	journal	January 2016
Classification and origins of GaAs oval defects grown by molecular beam epitaxy Fujiwara, K.; Kanamoto, K.; Ohta, Y. N. Journal of Crystal Growth, Vol. 80, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-0248(87)90529-X	journal	January 1987
Epitaxial Films of Germanium Deposited on Sapphire via Chemical Vapor Transport Tramposch, R. F. Journal of The Electrochemical Society, Vol. 116, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1149/1.2412000	journal	January 1969
A comprehensive study and methods of elimination of oval defects in MBE-GaAs Chand, Naresh; Chu, S. N. G. Journal of Crystal Growth, Vol. 104, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-0248(90)90151-A	journal	July 1990
Reduction of gallium-related oval defects Schlom, D. G.; Lee, W. S.; Ma, T. Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology B: Microelectronics Processing and Phenomena, Vol. 7, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1116/1.584736	journal	March 1989
Solar cell efficiency tables (version 46): Solar cell efficiency tables (version 46) Green, Martin A.; Emery, Keith; Hishikawa, Yoshihiro Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications, Vol. 23, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1002/pip.2637	journal	June 2015
Controlled formation of GaAs pn junctions during hydride vapor phase epitaxy of GaAs Schulte, Kevin L.; Rance, William L.; Reedy, Robert C. Journal of Crystal Growth, Vol. 352, Issue 1, p. 253-257 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrysgro.2011.11.013	journal	August 2012
Growth of semiconductors by the close-spaced vapor transport technique: A review Perrier, G.; Philippe, R.; Dodelet, J. P. Journal of Materials Research, Vol. 3, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1557/JMR.1988.1031	journal	October 1988
Photoluminescence and electrical properties of close space vapor transport GaAs epitaxial layers Mimila‐Arroyo, J.; Legros, R.; Bourgoin, J. C. Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 58, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.335749	journal	November 1985
Thin-Film Solar Cells with InP Absorber Layers Directly Grown on Nonepitaxial Metal Substrates Zheng, Maxwell; Wang, Hsin-Ping; Sutter-Fella, Carolin M. Advanced Energy Materials, Vol. 5, Issue 22 https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.201501337	journal	August 2015

Similar Records

Towards low-cost high-efficiency GaAs photovoltaics and photoelectrodes grown via vapor transport from a solid source

Conference · Mon Apr 29 00:00:00 EDT 2013 · Proceedings of the SPIE · OSTI ID:1534333

Boucher, Jason; Ritenour, Andrew; Boettcher, Shannon W.

Final Report: Vapor Transport Deposition for Thin Film III-V Photovoltaics

Technical Report · Wed Feb 10 00:00:00 EST 2016 · OSTI ID:1534333

Boettcher, Shannon; Greenaway, Ann; Boucher, Jason; +1 more

Doping and electronic properties of GaAs grown by close-spaced vapor transport from powder sources for scalable III–V photovoltaics

Journal Article · Mon Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 2014 · Energy & Environmental Science · OSTI ID:1534333

Ritenour, Andrew J.; Boucher, Jason W.; DeLancey, Robert; +3 more

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
GaAs solar cell
close-spaced vapor transport
epitaxy
homojunction

Title: Analysis of performance-limiting defects in $pn$ junction GaAs solar cells grown by water-mediated close-spaced vapor transport epitaxy

Citation Formats

References (36)

Similar Records

Related Subjects