Growth of InGaAs(P) in planetary metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy reactor using tertiarybutylarsine and tertiarybutylphosphine for photovoltaic applications

Abstract

The effects of wafer (surface) temperature on the surface morphologies of InP, InGaAsP, and InGaAs grown in a planetary metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE) reactor using tertiarybutylarsine (TBA) and tertiarybutylphosphine (TBP) as group V precursors were investigated. Compared with small horizontal reactors, InP growths require a relatively low temperature to prevent TBP predecomposition and parasitic gasphase reactions. However, such a low temperature can prevent the surface migration of In adatoms and degrade surface morphology, especially when a substantial amount of Ga precursors is present. Hence, growths of InGaAs require a higher temperature than that of InP and InGaAsP. In this work, 1.04 eV In 0.79 Ga 0.21 As 0.46 P 0.54 and 0.74 eV In 0.53 Ga 0.47 As single-junction cells as well as InGaAsP/InGaAs dual-junction solar cells have been successfully fabricated. The cell performances reveal that InGaAs layers grown at 590 °C exhibit great crystal quality, while 550-°C-grown InGaAsP layers contain a noticeable extent of defect density and lattice imperfection.

Performance of Ge and In0.53Ga0.47 as Thermophotovoltaic Cells under Different Spectral Irradiances

“…However, Ge is relatively abundant in supply and rather a cost-effective material to fabricate TPV cells [15], [16]. On the other hand, InGaAs is a direct III-V semiconductor material that has excellent optical and electrical properties, such as strong light absorption, high diffusion coefficient, long carrier lifetime, and large carrier diffusion length [17], [18]. On top of that, the maturity of InGaAs and monolithic interconnected module (MIM) lattice-matched to the available indium phosphide (InP) substrate makes it a suitable candidate for large-scale production [19].…”

Multi-Dimensional Optimization of In0.53Ga0.47As Thermophotovoltaic Cell using Real Coded Genetic Algorithm

“…It is worth mentioning that the existing epitaxy growth technology of metal-organic vapor-phase epitaxy (MOVPE) has the ability to produce In0.53Ga0.47As/InP heterojunction with high crystal quality and low defect density 26,27 . The main structure of In0.53Ga0.47As configuration includes the emitter, base, front surface field (FSF), back surface field (BSF), cap and buffer layers.…”

“…The main structure of In0.53Ga0.47As configuration includes the emitter, base, front surface field (FSF), back surface field (BSF), cap and buffer layers. In previous literature, the base thickness was reported between 1 and 5 µm, and emitter thickness was between 0.05 and 0.44 µm [27][28][29] . Several structures reported the use of highly doped In0.53Ga0.47As cap layer ~ 1  10 19 cm -3 and highly doped InP BSF/buffer layer ≥ 1  10 18 cm -3 .…”

“…At 1400 K blackbody temperature, Jsc and FF are increased respectively from 755.01 to 1719.35 mA/cm 2 and 62.65 to 68.63% after optimizing the entire cell configuration. Most of the optimization works focused on optimizing the electrical losses of cell to improve the Voc performance by reducing the thickness of the absorber layer27,76 . However, the absorption of near band-edge photons is neglected.…”

Growth of InGaAs Solar Cells on InP(001) Miscut Substrates Using Solid‐Source Molecular Beam Epitaxy

“…For InGaAs cells grown by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE), Wanlass et al has reported a W OC of 340 mV for cells operated under an air mass of zero at one sun . Likewise, Sodabanlu et al has reported a W OC of 360 mV for cells grown using tertiarybutylphosphine (TBP), whereas France et al has reported lattice‐mismatched metamorphic cells grown on GaAs substrates with a W OC of 380 mV . These defecits are all below 400 mV, a standard benchmark for high‐material‐quality solar cells …”