Understanding arsenic incorporation in CdTe with atom probe tomography

doi:10.1016/j.solmat.2018.02.023

This content will become publicly available on March 22, 2019

Title: Understanding arsenic incorporation in CdTe with atom probe tomography

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Overcoming the open circuit voltage deficiency in Cadmium Telluride (CdTe) photovoltaics may be achieved by increasing p-type doping while maintaining or increasing minority carrier lifetimes. Here, routes to higher doping efficiency using arsenic are explored through an atomic scale understanding of dopant incorporation limits and activation in molecular beam epitaxy grown CdTe layers. Atom probe tomography reveals spatial segregation into nanometer scale clusters containing > 60 at% As for samples with arsenic incorporation levels greater than 7-8 x 10^17 cm-3. The presence of arsenic clusters was accompanied by crystal quality degradation, particularly the introduction of arsenic-enriched extended defects. Post-growth annealing treatments are shown to increase the size of the As precipitates and the amount of As within the precipitates.

Authors:

Burton, G. L. ^[1] ; Diercks, D. R. ^[1] ; Ogedengbe, O. S. ^[2] ; Jayathilaka, P. A. R. D. ^[2] ; Edirisooriya, M. ^[2] ; Myers, T. H. ^[2] ; Zaunbrecher, K. N. ^[3] ; Moseley, J. ^[4] ; Barnes, T. M. ^[4] ; Gorman, B. P. ^[1]

Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO (United States)
Texas State Univ., San Marco, TX (United States)
National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO (United States)
National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

Publication Date:: 2018-03-22

Report Number(s):: NREL/JA-5K00-71229
Journal ID: ISSN 0927-0248

Grant/Contract Number:: AC36-08GO28308

Type:: Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:: Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells

Additional Journal Information:: Journal Volume: 182; Journal Issue: C; Journal ID: ISSN 0927-0248

Publisher:: Elsevier

Research Org:: National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

Sponsoring Org:: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Solar Energy Technologies Office (EE-4S), SunShot Foundational Program to Advance Cell Efficiency (F-PACE II)

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Subject:: 14 SOLAR ENERGY; 36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; CdTe; As doping; atom probe tomography; scanning transmission electron microscopy; molecular beam epitaxy; single crystalline

OSTI Identifier:: 1431043


                    Burton, G. L., Diercks, D. R., Ogedengbe, O. S., Jayathilaka, P. A. R. D., Edirisooriya, M., Myers, T. H., Zaunbrecher, K. N., Moseley, J., Barnes, T. M., and Gorman, B. P.. Understanding arsenic incorporation in CdTe with atom probe tomography.  United States: N. p.,  
        Web.  doi:10.1016/j.solmat.2018.02.023.

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                    Burton, G. L., Diercks, D. R., Ogedengbe, O. S., Jayathilaka, P. A. R. D., Edirisooriya, M., Myers, T. H., Zaunbrecher, K. N., Moseley, J., Barnes, T. M., & Gorman, B. P.. Understanding arsenic incorporation in CdTe with atom probe tomography.  United States.  doi:10.1016/j.solmat.2018.02.023.

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                    Burton, G. L., Diercks, D. R., Ogedengbe, O. S., Jayathilaka, P. A. R. D., Edirisooriya, M., Myers, T. H., Zaunbrecher, K. N., Moseley, J., Barnes, T. M., and Gorman, B. P.. 2018.  
        "Understanding arsenic incorporation in CdTe with atom probe tomography".  United States.  
        doi:10.1016/j.solmat.2018.02.023.

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@article{osti_1431043,

  title        = {Understanding arsenic incorporation in CdTe with atom probe tomography},

  author       = {Burton, G. L. and Diercks, D. R. and Ogedengbe, O. S. and Jayathilaka, P. A. R. D. and Edirisooriya, M. and Myers, T. H. and Zaunbrecher, K. N. and Moseley, J. and Barnes, T. M. and Gorman, B. P.},

  abstractNote = {Overcoming the open circuit voltage deficiency in Cadmium Telluride (CdTe) photovoltaics may be achieved by increasing p-type doping while maintaining or increasing minority carrier lifetimes. Here, routes to higher doping efficiency using arsenic are explored through an atomic scale understanding of dopant incorporation limits and activation in molecular beam epitaxy grown CdTe layers. Atom probe tomography reveals spatial segregation into nanometer scale clusters containing > 60 at% As for samples with arsenic incorporation levels greater than 7-8 x 10^17 cm-3. The presence of arsenic clusters was accompanied by crystal quality degradation, particularly the introduction of arsenic-enriched extended defects. Post-growth annealing treatments are shown to increase the size of the As precipitates and the amount of As within the precipitates.},

  doi          = {10.1016/j.solmat.2018.02.023},

  journal      = {Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells},

  number       = C,

  volume       = 182,

  place        = {United States},

  year         = {2018},

  month        = {3}

}

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Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
This content will become publicly available on March 22, 2019
Publisher's Version of Record
10.1016/j.solmat.2018.02.023
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solmat.2018.02.023

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