Impact of thermal annealing on bulk InGaAsSbN materials grown by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy

Journal Article · Mon Feb 03 04:00:00 EST 2014 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4864111· OSTI ID:22283207

Kim, T. W.; Kim, K.; Lee, J. J. ^[1]; Kuech, T. F. ^[2]; Wells, N. P.; LaLumondiere, S. D.; Sin, Y.; Lotshaw, W. T.; Moss, S. C. ^[3]

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1. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Ajou University, Suwon 443-749 (Korea, Republic of)
2. Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706 (United States)
3. Electronics and Photonics Lab, The Aerospace Corporation, El Segundo, California 90245 (United States)

Two different thermal annealing techniques (rapid thermal annealing (RTA) and in-situ post-growth annealing in the metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE) chamber) were employed to investigate their impact on the optical characteristics of double-heterostructures (DH) of InGaAsSbN/GaAs and on the performance of single-junction solar cell structures, all grown by MOVPE. We find that an optimized RTA procedure leads to a similar improvement in the photoluminescence (PL) intensity compared with material employing a multi-step optimized anneal within the MOVPE reactor. Time-resolved photoluminescence techniques at low temperature (LT) and room temperature (RT) were performed to characterize the carrier dynamics in bulk InGaAsSbN layers. Room temperature carrier lifetimes were found to be similar for both annealing methods, although the LT-PL (16 K) measurements of the MOVPE-annealed sample found longer lifetimes than the RTA-annealed sample (680 ps vs. 260 ps) for the PL measurement energy of 1.24 eV. InGaAsSbN-based single junction solar cells processed with the optimized RTA procedure exhibited an enhancement of the electrical performance, such as improvements in open circuit voltage, short circuit current, fill factor, and efficiency over solar cells subjected to the in-situ MOVPE annealing technique.

• OSTI ID: 22283207
• Journal Information: Applied Physics Letters, Journal Name: Applied Physics Letters Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 104; ISSN APPLAB; ISSN 0003-6951
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
ANNEALING
ANTIMONIDES
CARRIER LIFETIME
CHARGE CARRIERS
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
FILL FACTORS
GALLIUM ARSENIDES
INDIUM COMPOUNDS
NITRIDES
PHOTOLUMINESCENCE
SEMICONDUCTOR JUNCTIONS
SEMICONDUCTOR MATERIALS
SOLAR CELLS
TEMPERATURE RANGE 0273-0400 K
TIME RESOLUTION
VAPOR PHASE EPITAXY