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Using resonant energy X-ray diffraction to extract chemical order parameters in ternary semiconductors

Journal Article · · Journal of Materials Chemistry C
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1039/c9tc06699c· OSTI ID:1606128
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [1];  [5];  [5];  [5];  [1];  [1]
  1. National Renewable Energy Laboratory; Golden; USA; Department of Physics; Colorado School of Mines
  2. SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory; Menlo Park; California; USA; Department of Mechanical Engineering
  3. National Renewable Energy Laboratory; Golden; USA
  4. Department of Physics; Colorado School of Mines; Golden; USA
  5. SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory; Menlo Park; California; USA
+ Show Author Affiliations

II–IV–V2 materials, ternary analogs to III–V materials, are emerging for their potential applications in devices such as LEDs and solar cells. Controlling cation ordering in II–IV–V2 materials offers the potential to tune properties at nearly fixed compositions and lattice parameters. While tuning properties at a fixed lattice constant through ordering has the potential to be a powerful tool used in device fabrication, cation ordering also creates challenges with characterization and quantification of ordering. In this work, we investigate two different methods to quantify cation ordering in ZnGeP2 thin films: a stretching parameter calculated from lattice constants , and an order parameter determined from the cation site occupancies (S). We use high resolution X-ray diffraction (HRXRD) to determine and resonant energy X-ray diffraction (REXD) to extract S. REXD is critical to distinguish between elements with similar Z-number (e.g. Zn and Ge). We found that samples with a corresponding to the ordered chalcopyrite structure had only partially ordered S values. The optical absorption onset for these films occurred at lower energy than expected for fully ordered ZnGeP2, indicating that S is a more accurate descriptor of cation order than the stretching parameter. Since disorder is complex and can occur on many length scales, metrics for quantifying disorder should be chosen that most accurately reflect the physical properties of interest.

Research Organization:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC36-08GO28308; AC02-76SF00515
OSTI ID:
1606128
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1604243
OSTI ID: 1633721
Report Number(s):
NREL/JA-5K00-75485; MainId:19957; UUID:a1e26086-630a-ea11-9c2a-ac162d87dfe5; MainAdminID:8434
Journal Information:
Journal of Materials Chemistry C, Journal Name: Journal of Materials Chemistry C Journal Issue: 13 Vol. 8; ISSN 2050-7526
Publisher:
Royal Society of ChemistryCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
cation ordering
semiconductors
thin films