Boron arsenide thin film solar cell development. Final report

Technical Report · Mon Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 1980

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/5087822· OSTI ID:5087822

Boone, J. L.; Van Doren, T. P.

Pyrolytic decomposition of diborane and arsine has been used in attempts to grow polycrystalline BAs films. This method, however, produced only amorphous films for deposition temperatures below 920/sup 0/C and polycrystalline boron subarsenide (B/sub 12/As/sub 2/) flms for deposition temperatures above this value. The amorphous films have been determined to have a significant arsenic content but the actual stoichiometry was not obtained. The films were adherent on single crystal sapphire (0001), (111) silicon, (0001) SiC, and polycrystalline SiC but were found not to be adherent to substrates of fused quartz, tungsten, and molybdenum. It was also found that all films deposited above 650/sup 0/C were p-type while those deposited below 600/sup 0/C were usually n-type. Polycrystalline BAs and B/sub 12/As/sub 2/ was produced by reaction of the elements in a closed tube. The amorphous films showed an indirect or non-direct optical bandgap from 1.0 to 1.7 eV with the most probable values between 1.2 to 1.4 eV. The crystalline BAs powder shows a bandgap near 1.0 eV. Photoconductance time constants have been measured for films deposited on (0001) sapphire and (0001) SiC. Attempts at doping the amorphous films were generally unsuccessful. A polycrystalline powder sample was successfully doped with sulfur. Attempts were made to produce a Schottky barrier diode by evaporating Al dots onto an amorphous film on graphite without a post-evaporation anneal. An MIS structure was also attempted by baking an amorphous film in air at 280/sup 0/C before evaporation of aluminum. Although nonlinear characteristics were obtained, none of the devices showed any photovoltaic response. A p-type amorphous film was deposited on an n-type silicon substrate to form a p-n heterojunction. This device did exhibit a photovoltaic response but it is believed that the photogeneration was occurring primarily in the silicon substrate.

• Research Organization: Eagle-Picher Industries, Inc., Miami, OK (USA). Miami Research Labs.
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-79ET23011
• OSTI ID: 5087822
• Report Number(s): DOE/ET/23011-1
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
140501* -- Solar Energy Conversion-- Photovoltaic Conversion
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
360601 -- Other Materials-- Preparation & Manufacture
AMORPHOUS STATE
ARSENIC COMPOUNDS
ARSENIDES
BORON ARSENIDES
BORON COMPOUNDS
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION
CRYSTAL GROWTH
CRYSTALS
DATA
DATA FORMS
DIRECT ENERGY CONVERTERS
ELECTRIC CONDUCTIVITY
ELECTRIC CONTACTS
ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT
ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES
ENERGY GAP
EQUIPMENT
ETCHING
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FABRICATION
FILMS
GRAPHS
INFORMATION
JUNCTIONS
MATERIALS
MIS TRANSISTORS
MORPHOLOGY
N-TYPE CONDUCTORS
NUMERICAL DATA
OPTICAL PROPERTIES
P-N JUNCTIONS
P-TYPE CONDUCTORS
PHOTOCONDUCTIVITY
PHOTOELECTRIC CELLS
PHOTOVOLTAIC CELLS
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
PNICTIDES
POLYCRYSTALS
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
SCHOTTKY BARRIER DIODES
SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES
SEMICONDUCTOR DIODES
SEMICONDUCTOR JUNCTIONS
SEMICONDUCTOR MATERIALS
SOLAR CELLS
SOLAR EQUIPMENT
SUBSTRATES
SURFACE FINISHING
TRANSISTORS