High mobility single-crystalline-like GaAs thin films on inexpensive flexible metal substrates by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition

Journal Article · Mon Sep 01 04:00:00 EDT 2014 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4895388· OSTI ID:22311018

Rathi, M.; Gao, Y.; Yao, Y.; Selvamanickam, V. ^[1]; Zheng, N.; Ahrenkiel, P. ^[2]; Martinez, J. ^[3]

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1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, Texas 77204 (United States)
2. Department of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Rapid City, South Dakota 57701 (United States)
3. Materials Evaluation Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas 77085 (United States)

We demonstrate heteroepitaxial growth of single-crystalline-like n and p-type doped GaAs thin films on inexpensive, flexible, and light-weight metal foils by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition. Single-crystalline-like Ge thin film on biaxially textured templates made by ion beam assisted deposition on metal foil served as the epitaxy enabling substrate for GaAs growth. The GaAs films exhibited strong (004) preferred orientation, sharp in-plane texture, low grain misorientation, strong photoluminescence, and a defect density of ∼10{sup 7 }cm{sup −2}. Furthermore, the GaAs films exhibited hole and electron mobilities as high as 66 and 300 cm{sup 2}/V-s, respectively. High mobility single-crystalline-like GaAs thin films on inexpensive metal substrates can pave the path for roll-to-roll manufacturing of flexible III-V solar cells for the mainstream photovoltaics market.

• OSTI ID: 22311018
• Journal Information: Applied Physics Letters, Journal Name: Applied Physics Letters Journal Issue: 9 Vol. 105; ISSN APPLAB; ISSN 0003-6951
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
CHEMICAL VAPOR DEPOSITION
CRYSTAL DEFECTS
CRYSTAL GROWTH
DOPED MATERIALS
ELECTRON MOBILITY
EPITAXY
FOILS
GALLIUM ARSENIDES
GRAIN ORIENTATION
METALS
MONOCRYSTALS
ORGANOMETALLIC COMPOUNDS
PHOTOLUMINESCENCE
PHOTOVOLTAIC EFFECT
SOLAR CELLS
SUBSTRATES
TEXTURE
THIN FILMS