Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Scanning tunneling microscopic analysis of Cu(In,Ga)Se{sub 2} epitaxial layers

Journal Article · · Journal of Applied Physics
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3304919· OSTI ID:21476136
; ;  [1]; ;  [2]
  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Illinois, 1304 W. Green Street, Urbana, Illinois 61801 (United States)
  2. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Beckman Institute, University of Illinois, 3065 Beckman Institute, 405 N. Matthews St., Urbana, Illinois 61801 (United States)

Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) measurements have been made on single-crystal epitaxial layers of CuInSe{sub 2} grown on GaAs substrates. Results were obtained for as-grown, air-exposed, and cleaned surfaces; in situ cleaved surfaces; surfaces sputtered and annealed in the STM system; and samples prepared by a light chemical etch. Conventional constant-current topographs, current-voltage curves, and current imaging tunneling spectroscopy (CITS) scans were obtained. Topographic images show that the surfaces appear rough on the atomic scale and often exhibit regular features consistent with a previously proposed surface ad-dimer reconstruction. CITS scans show a spatially varying energy gap consistent with band-edge fluctuations on a scale of a few atomic spacings. Energy variations were observed in both band edges. Although quantitative description of the magnitude of these fluctuations is difficult, the fluctuations on the atomic scale appear much larger than observed by methods such as photoluminescence, which average over larger volumes.

OSTI ID:
21476136
Journal Information:
Journal of Applied Physics, Journal Name: Journal of Applied Physics Journal Issue: 3 Vol. 107; ISSN JAPIAU; ISSN 0021-8979
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English