Safer growth of GaAs using trimethyl arsenic

Conference · Fri Jul 15 04:00:00 EDT 1988 · AIP Conf. Proc.; (United States)

OSTI ID:7229131

Partain, L D; Weiss, R E; McLeod, P S

Gas source growth of GaAs using arsine offers advantages for large scale fabrication of a range of devices including solar cells. The toxicity of arsine presents substantial problems of safety and liability. This provides a strong incentive to develop alternate gas sources for As. Trimethyl arsenic is a promising candidate that is up to 6500 times less toxic than arsine and is a low vapor pressure liquid that is much easier to contain and neutralize in case of an accident. It has been used in a vacuum MOCVD system to grow GaAs with a background p doping level of 6--8 x 10/sup 16/ cm/sup -3/, a mobility of 276 cm/sup 2//Vsec, and room temperature photoluminescence full width, half height of 41 meV. This should be sufficient for the growth of high performance solar cells.

• Research Organization: Varian Research Center, Palo Alto, CA 94303
• OSTI ID: 7229131
• Report Number(s): CONF-880112-
• Conference Information: Journal Name: AIP Conf. Proc.; (United States) Journal Volume: 166:1
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
140400* -- Solar Energy-- Environmental Aspects
140501 -- Solar Energy Conversion-- Photovoltaic Conversion
ARSENIC COMPOUNDS
ARSENIDES
CRYSTAL GROWTH METHODS
DIRECT ENERGY CONVERTERS
EPITAXY
FABRICATION
GALLIUM ARSENIDES
GALLIUM COMPOUNDS
HAZARDOUS MATERIALS
LUMINESCENCE
MATERIALS
MATERIALS HANDLING
OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY
PHOTOELECTRIC CELLS
PHOTOLUMINESCENCE
PHOTOVOLTAIC CELLS
PNICTIDES
SAFETY
VAPOR PHASE EPITAXY