ZnSnN(2), a new earth-abundant semiconductor, is synthesized and characterized for use as a photovoltaic absorber material. Results confirm the predicted orthorhombic Pna2(1) crystal structure in RF sputtered thin films. Additionally, optical measurements reveal a direct bandgap of about 2 eV, which is larger than our calculated bandgap of 1.42 eV due to the Burstein-Moss effect.
The authors report on the plasma-assisted molecular-beam epitaxy of semipolar AlN(112¯2) films on (11¯00) m-plane sapphire. AlN deposited on m sapphire settles into two main crystalline orientation domains, AlN(112¯2) and AlN(101¯0), whose ratio depends on the III/V ratio. The in-plane epitaxial relationships of AlN(112¯2) on m-plane sapphire are [112¯3¯]AlN‖[0001]sapphire and [11¯00]AlN‖[112¯0]sapphire. In the case of AlN(101¯0), the in-plane epitaxial relationships were [12¯10]AlN‖[0001]sapphire and [0001]AlN‖[112¯0]sapphire. Growth under moderate nitrogen-rich conditions enables them to isolate the (112¯2) orientation and to improve the surface morphology of the layers.
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