From Salt to Electronics: Heteroepitaxy and GaAs Solar Cells

Sharma, Sahil; Favela, Carlos A.; Yu, Bo; Galstyan, Eduard; Sun, Sicong; Terlier, Tanguy; Selvamanickam, Venkat

doi:10.1002/admi.202201148

From Salt to Electronics: Heteroepitaxy and GaAs Solar Cells

Journal Article · Wed Aug 17 00:00:00 EDT 2022 · Advanced Materials Interfaces

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/admi.202201148· OSTI ID:1889458

^[1]; Favela, Carlos A. ^[2]; Yu, Bo ^[2]; Galstyan, Eduard ^[2]; Sun, Sicong ^[2]; Terlier, Tanguy ^[3]; ^[2]

Univ. of Houston, TX (United States); University of Houston
Univ. of Houston, TX (United States)
Rice Univ., Houston, TX (United States)

This paper presents work on the heteroepitaxy of salts, specifically fluorides, on semiconductor and heteroepitaxy of semiconductor on salts. Fluorides layers are deposited on commercial Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) wafers followed by the heteroepitaxial growth of GaAs using metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). The fluoride layers consist of 2 lattice-engineered layers of alkaline-earth compounds to match with GaAs, and are used to sandwich another alkaline-earth compound with higher water-solubility as sacrificial layer. The triple fluoride layers enable liftoff of free-standing semiconductor films which can be further transferred to desirable substrates. 2D-X-ray Diffraction (2D-XRD) measurements confirm epitaxial growth of both the fluorides and the subsequently grown GaAs films. Single junction (SJ) solar cell devices based on thus prepared films show a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 10.3% under 1 sun illumination. After the completion of device fabrications, the GaAs film is lifted off from the substrate by a novel water-assisted epitaxial liftoff (H₂O-ELO) technique and transferred to a cheaper substrate. The original GaAs wafer is recycled and reused twice. Devices based on reused substrates show no significant degradation in performance. Lastly, the semiconductor-salt-semiconductor scheme has great implications in high performance, flexible, and large area electronics.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Univ. of Houston, TX (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE; USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Solar Energy Technologies Office

Grant/Contract Number:: EE0008982

OSTI ID:: 1889458

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1881996

Journal Information:: Advanced Materials Interfaces, Journal Name: Advanced Materials Interfaces Journal Issue: 26 Vol. 9; ISSN 2196-7350

Publisher:: Wiley-VCHCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

References (32)

High‐efficiency single‐junction p‐i‐n GaAs solar cell on roll‐to‐roll epi‐ready flexible metal foils for low‐cost photovoltaics Khatiwada, Devendra; Favela, Carlos A.; Sun, Sicong Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications, Vol. 28, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1002/pip.3308	journal	July 2020
Growth and nitridation of β-Ga2O3 thin films by Sol-Gel spin-coating epitaxy with post-annealing process Zhu, Yuxia; Xiu, Xiangqian; Cheng, Fei Journal of Sol-Gel Science and Technology, Vol. 100, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10971-021-05629-4	journal	September 2021
Epitaxial thin films of ZnS and GaAs prepared by R.F. sputtering on NaCl substrates Bunton, G. V.; Day, S. C. M. Thin Solid Films, Vol. 10, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1016/0040-6090(72)90267-2	journal	April 1972
Fluoride/semiconductor and semiconductor/fluoride/semiconductor heteroepitaxial structure research: A review Sinharoy, S. Thin Solid Films, Vol. 187, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1016/0040-6090(90)90045-F	journal	June 1990
Epitaxy of atomically flat CaF2 films on Si(111) substrates Wang, C. R.; Müller, B. H.; Hofmann, K. R. Thin Solid Films, Vol. 410, Issue 1-2 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0040-6090(02)00245-6	journal	May 2002
Guide to references on III–V semiconductor chemical etching Clawson, A. R. Materials Science and Engineering: R: Reports, Vol. 31, Issue 1-6 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0927-796X(00)00027-9	journal	January 2001
NaCl-assisted substrate dependent 2D planar nucleated growth of MoS2 Singh, Aditya; Moun, Monika; Sharma, Madan Applied Surface Science, Vol. 538 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsusc.2020.148201	journal	February 2021
Controlled spalling-based mechanical substrate exfoliation for III-V solar cells: A review Chen, Jie; Packard, Corinne E. Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, Vol. 225 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solmat.2021.111018	journal	June 2021
NaCl-Assisted CVD Growth of Large-Area High-Quality Trilayer MoS₂ and the Role of the Concentration Boundary Layer Singh, Aditya; Sharma, Madan; Singh, Rajendra Crystal Growth & Design, Vol. 21, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.cgd.1c00390	journal	August 2021
Recrystallized NaCl from Thin Film to Nano-/Microsized Sacrificial Crystal for Metal Nanostructures Lee, Dong Kyu; Kim, Tae Soo; Choi, Jae-Young Crystal Growth & Design, Vol. 18, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.cgd.8b00748	journal	July 2018
Ultrafast and Chemically Stable Transfer of Au Nanomembrane Using a Water-Soluble NaCl Sacrificial Layer for Flexible Solar Cells Dong, Wan Jae; Kim, Sungjoo; Park, Jae Yong ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, Vol. 11, Issue 33 https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.9b09820	journal	August 2019
Epitaxial lift-off process for gallium arsenide substrate reuse and flexible electronics Cheng, Cheng-Wei; Shiu, Kuen-Ting; Li, Ning Nature Communications, Vol. 4, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms2583	journal	March 2013
Water-Soluble Epitaxial NaCl Thin Film for Fabrication of Flexible Devices Lee, Dong Kyu; Kim, Sungjoo; Oh, Sein Scientific Reports, Vol. 7, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-09603-5	journal	August 2017
High opto-electronic quality n-type single-crystalline-like GaAs thin films on flexible metal substrates Rathi, M.; Dutta, P.; Zheng, N. Journal of Materials Chemistry C, Vol. 5, Issue 31 https://doi.org/10.1039/C7TC02443F	journal	January 2017
Flexible GaAs solar cells on roll-to-roll processed epitaxial Ge films on metal foils: a route towards low-cost and high-performance III–V photovoltaics Dutta, P.; Rathi, M.; Khatiwada, D. Energy & Environmental Science, Vol. 12, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1039/C8EE02553C	journal	January 2019
GaAs metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor with nanometer-thin dielectric grown by atomic layer deposition Ye, P. D.; Wilk, G. D.; Yang, B. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 83, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1590743	journal	July 2003
Detailed Balance Limit of Efficiency of p‐n Junction Solar Cells Shockley, William; Queisser, Hans J. Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 32, Issue 3, p. 510-519 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1736034	journal	March 1961
The role of vicinal silicon surfaces in the formation of epitaxial twins during the growth of III-V thin films Devenyi, G. A.; Woo, S. Y.; Ghanad-Tavakoli, S. Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 110, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3671022	journal	December 2011
GaAs/(Ca,Sr)F₂/(001) GaAs lattice‐matched structures grown by molecular beam epitaxy Siskos, S.; Fontaine, C.; Munoz‐Yague, A. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 44, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.94672	journal	June 1984
Use of a rapid anneal to improve CaF₂:Si (100) epitaxy Pfeiffer, Loren; Phillips, Julia M.; Smith, T. P. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 46, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.95830	journal	May 1985
Dislocation reduction in epitaxial GaAs on Si(100) Fischer, R.; Neuman, D.; Zabel, H. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 48, Issue 18 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.96988	journal	May 1986
Antiphase disorder in epitaxial GaAs films grown on Ca_xSr₁₋_xF₂ (100) with higher crystallographic symmetry Tsutsui, Kazuo; Ishiwara, Hiroshi; Furukawa, Seijiro Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 49, Issue 25 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.97221	journal	December 1986
Surface reconstruction of fluorites in vacuum and aqueous environment Fisicaro, Giuseppe; Sicher, Michael; Amsler, Maximilian Physical Review Materials, Vol. 1, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.1.033609	journal	August 2017
Novel Epitaxial Lift-Off for Flexible, Inexpensive GaAs Solar Cells Sharma, Sahil; Favela, Carlos A.; Sun, Sicong 2020 IEEE 47th Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC), 2020 47th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC) https://doi.org/10.1109/PVSC45281.2020.9300363	conference	June 2020
Analytical methods for the extraction of solar-cell single- and double-diode model parameters from I-V characteristics Chan, D. S. H.; Phang, J. C. H. IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, Vol. 34, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1109/T-ED.1987.22920	journal	February 1987
The epitaxial growth of Ge single‐crystal films on a CaF ₂ /sapphire substrate Barkai, M.; Grünbaum, E.; Deutscher, G. Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology A: Vacuum, Surfaces, and Films, Vol. 9, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1116/1.577218	journal	September 1991
Molecular-beam epitaxy growth of GaAs/Ca0.5Sr0.5F2/GaAs multilayer structure Young, K. Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology B: Microelectronics and Nanometer Structures, Vol. 10, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1116/1.586432	journal	March 1992
Spin coating epitaxial films Kelso, Meagan V.; Mahenderkar, Naveen K.; Chen, Qingzhi Science, Vol. 364, Issue 6436 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaw6184	journal	April 2019
Comment on “Spin coating epitaxial films” Lu, Chaojing; Tang, Lingli Science, Vol. 365, Issue 6458 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aay3894	journal	September 2019
Etching AlAs with HF for Epitaxial Lift-Off Applications Voncken, M. M. A. J.; Schermer, J. J.; van Niftrik, A. T. J. Journal of The Electrochemical Society, Vol. 151, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1149/1.1690293	journal	January 2004
Arsenic Formation on GaAs during Etching in HF Solutions: Relevance for the Epitaxial Lift-Off Process Smeenk, N. J.; Engel, J.; Mulder, P. ECS Journal of Solid State Science and Technology, Vol. 2, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1149/2.006303jss	journal	December 2012
Heteroepitaxial Growth of High Quality GaAs Films on Rapid-Thermal-anealing Processed CaF₂/Si(511) Structures Asano, Tanemasa; Ishiwara, Hiroshi; Furukawa, Seijiro MRS Proceedings, Vol. 144 https://doi.org/10.1557/PROC-144-291	journal	January 1988

Similar Records

Conversion efficiency improvement of ELO GaAs solar cell, deposited on water soluble sacrificial buffer

Journal Article · Tue Jan 24 19:00:00 EST 2023 · Surface and Coatings Technology · OSTI ID:2418721

III-V Solar Cells with Novel Epitaxial Lift-off Architectures for Extended Substrate Reuse for Low-cost Manufacturing

Technical Report · Sun Sep 04 00:00:00 EDT 2022 · OSTI ID:1832889

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
Epitaxy Liftoff
GaAs
Heteroepitaxy
Solar Cell

From Salt to Electronics: Heteroepitaxy and GaAs Solar Cells

Citation Formats

References (32)

Similar Records

Related Subjects