Effects of Zinc and Tellurium Doping on Minority Carrier Recombination in Lattice-Matched and Lattice-Mismatched InGaAs/InP Epitaxial Layers and Thermophotovoltaic Cells

Conference · Sun Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 2006

OSTI ID:944000

Donetsky, D; Anikeev, S; Gu, N; Dashiell, M; Ehsani, H; Newman, F; Wanlass, M; Wang, C

The results of study of minority carrier lifetime in p-type and n-type InGaAs double heterostructures (DH) and thermophotovoltaic (TPV) cells with InPAs step-graded buffer layers grown on InP substrates are summarized. The active layer carrier concentration was varied in the range from 10{sup 15} to 10{sup 18} cm{sup -3}. The carrier lifetime constants were determined from photoluminescence (PL) transient and frequency responses under low-injection conditions. The rapid decrease of electron lifetime with decrease of excitation was observed in p-type InGaAs DHs and was attributed to capture of electrons on positively-charged deep-donor recombination centers. It was found that Te-doping of the InPAs buffer layers improves the low-injection electron lifetime. Temperature dependences of radiative efficiency and minority carrier lifetime were studied in sets of DHs with different doping level in order to separate the radiative and non-radiative recombination processes.

• Research Organization: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO.
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC36-99GO10337
• OSTI ID: 944000
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
BUFFERS
CARRIER LIFETIME
EFFICIENCY
ELECTRONS
ENERGY CONVERSION
EXCITATION
LIFETIME
PHOTOLUMINESCENCE
RECOMBINATION
SUBSTRATES
Solar Energy - Photovoltaics
TELLURIUM
TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE
TRANSIENTS
ZINC