Electron Traps Detected in p-type GaAsN Using Deep Level Transient Spectroscopy

Conference · Sat Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 2005

OSTI ID:860693

Johnston, S; Kurtz, S; Friedman, D; Ptak, A; Ahrenkiel, R; Crandall, R

The GaAsN alloy can have a band gap as small as 1.0 eV when the nitrogen composition is about 2%. Indium can also be added to the alloy to increase lattice matching to GaAs and Ge. These properties are advantageous for developing a highly-efficient, multi-junction solar cell. However, poor GaAsN cell properties, such as low open-circuit voltage, have led to inadequate performance. Deep-level transient spectroscopy of p-type GaAsN has identified an electron trap having an activation energy near 0.2 eV and a trap density of at least 1016 cm-3. This trap level appears with the addition of small amounts of nitrogen to GaAs, which also corresponds to an increased drop in open-circuit voltage.

• Research Organization: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO.
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC36-99GO10337
• OSTI ID: 860693
• Report Number(s): NREL/CP-520-37021
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
42 ENGINEERING
ACTIVATION ENERGY
ALLOYS
CONCENTRATOR MODULE
DEEP LEVEL TRANSIENT SPECTROSCOPY
DEEP-LEVEL TRANSIENT SPECTROSCOPY (DLTS)
ELECTRON TRAP
ELECTRONS
INDIUM
LATTICE MATCHING
NITROGEN
NITROGEN COMPOSITION
OPEN-CIRCUIT VOLTAGE
PERFORMANCE
PV
SOLAR CELLS
SOLAR ENERGY
SPECTROSCOPY
Solar Energy - Photovoltaics
TRANSIENTS