Metalorganic chemical vapor deposition of GaAs on Si for solar cell applications

Vernon, S. M.; Haven, V. E.; Tobin, S. P.; Wolfson, R. G.

doi:10.1016/0022-0248(86)90348-9

Cited by 61 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Since the thickness of compound semiconductor multijunction solar cells on Si substrates was usually above 4 μm for the improvement of light absorption efficiency [1], [10], [11], they were easily subjected to the crack formation. The cracks were known to behave as scattering centers reducing the light propagation into the layers and to increase the parasitic resistance of devices [5], [12], [13]. Theoretically, it was known that the cracking occurred when the elastic energy induced in an epitaxial GaAs layer on Si due to the mismatch in thermal expansion coefficient exceeded that required to generate two {1 1 0} surfaces [5].…”

Section: G Rowth Of Iii-v Compound Semiconductor Solar Cells Onmentioning

confidence: 99%

Control of Crack Formation for the Fabrication of Crack-Free and Self-Isolated High-Efficiency Gallium Arsenide Photovoltaic Cells on Silicon Substrate

Jun

Shin

et al. 2016

IEEE J. Photovoltaics

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We proposed a new scheme, controlling the crack formation by notch patterns, to fabricate self-isolated high-efficiency gallium arsenide (GaAs)-based solar cells on a silicon (Si) substrate. The notch patterns introduced into the Si substrate were found to successfully generate the crack-free areas of 2 mm × 2 mm size separated by the cracks for the 5.8-μm-thick GaAs layers on it. The individual solar cells on the crack-free areas were confirmed to be electrically isolated from one another by the well-defined crack array. The open-circuit voltage and the efficiency of the crack-free cell were improved to 0.87 V and 18.0%, respectively, from 0.78 V and 14.7% for the cell with 33.2 cm −1 of linear crack density.Index Terms-Crack, gallium arsenide (GaAs), isolation, metalorganic chemical vapor deposition, photovoltaic cells, III-V semiconductor materials, silicon (Si).

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Section: G Rowth Of Iii-v Compound Semiconductor Solar Cells Onmentioning

confidence: 99%

Control of Crack Formation for the Fabrication of Crack-Free and Self-Isolated High-Efficiency Gallium Arsenide Photovoltaic Cells on Silicon Substrate

Jun

Shin

et al. 2016

IEEE J. Photovoltaics

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“…Latticematched 2J InGaP/GaAs solar cells have been the key building block for today's most efficient 3J and quadruple junction (4J) III-V solar cells, with GaAs being predominantly used as the starting substrate. Hence, integration of GaAs-on-Si substrate was the initial and the natural choice for realizing a "GaAs-on-Si" virtual platform for the subsequent multijunction solar cell growth (Vernon et al 1986;Yamaguchi et al 1988;Soga et al 1995). More recently, approaches involving metamorphic graded buffers such as GaAsP and SiGe have gained a lot of attention for III-V/Si tandem solar cells (Grassman, Carlin, and Ringel 2010;Dimroth et al 2014;Diaz et al 2014;Yaung, Lang, and Lee 2014).…”

Section: Heteroepitaxial Approach For Iii-v-on-si Integrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The most noteworthy techniques which have been employed for direct GaAs epitaxy on Si to reduce the threading dislocation density (TDD) include (i) the thermal-cycle annealing (TCA) (Yamaguchi, Nishioka, and Sugo 1989;Yamaguchi 1991) and (ii) the low temperature and low growth rate process during the initial GaAs nucleation on Si (Vernon et al 1986;Tran et al 2012;Yamaguchi, Nishioka, and Sugo 1989;Yamaguchi 1991;Bolkhovityanov and Pchelyakov 2008). Growing thicker GaAs buffers has also been shown to facilitate dislocation reduction (Vernon et al 1986) but adds to the overall cost and time of the epitaxial process. Additionally, thin strained layers (SLs) and superlattices introduced into the bulk GaAs buffer have been shown to facilitate the annihilation of TDs and minimize the dislocation propagation into the active layers of interest.…”

Section: Heteroepitaxial Approach For Iii-v-on-si Integrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The insertion of an SL during the GaAs on Si growth relieves the need for high-temperature TCA and multiple TCA iterations. Spire Corporation utilized direct GaAs-on-Si epitaxy involving thick GaAs buffer layer to realize 1J GaAs solar cell on Si substrate for 1-sun and CPV application using thermal-cycle growth (TCG) by metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) technique (Vernon et al 1986(Vernon et al , 1988(Vernon et al , 1990(Vernon et al , 1991. A low temperature GaAs nucleation layer was grown at 400˚C followed by the standard GaAs growth at 700˚C.…”

Section: Integration Approaches For Iii-v-on-si Solar Cells Heteroepimentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A low temperature GaAs nucleation layer was grown at 400˚C followed by the standard GaAs growth at 700˚C. Ellipsometry studies showed that the presence of arsine during the Si bakeout was one of the major sources of oxide formation (Vernon et al 1986). For a 1J GaAs cell structure, a 7-µm thick n þ GaAs buffer was employed between the cell structure and the Si substrate.…”

Section: Integration Approaches For Iii-v-on-si Solar Cells Heteroepimentioning

confidence: 99%

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III–V Multijunction Solar Cell Integration with Silicon: Present Status, Challenges and Future Outlook

Jain

Hudait

2014

Energy Harvesting and Systems

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Achieving high-efficiency solar cells and at the same time driving down the cell cost has been among the key objectives for photovoltaic researchers to attain a lower levelized cost of energy (LCOE). While the performance of silicon (Si) based solar cells have almost saturated at an efficiency of~25%, III-V compound semiconductor based solar cells have steadily shown performance improvement at~1% (absolute) increase per year, with a recent record efficiency of 44.7%. Integration of such high-efficiency III-V multijunction solar cells on significantly cheaper and large area Si substrate has recently attracted immense interest to address the future LCOE roadmaps by unifying the high-efficiency merits of III-V materials with low-cost and abundance of Si. This review article will discuss the current progress in the development of III-V multijunction solar cell integration onto Si substrate. The current state-of-the-art for III-Von-Si solar cells along with their theoretical performance projections is presented. Next, the key design criteria and the technical challenges associated with the integration of III-V multijunction solar cells on Si are reviewed. Different technological routes for integrating III-V solar cells on Si substrate through heteroepitaxial integration and via mechanical stacking approach are presented. The key merits and technical challenges for all of the till-date available technologies are summarized. Finally, the prospects, opportunities and future outlook toward further advancing the performance of III-V-on-Si multijunction solar cells are discussed. With the plummeting price of Si solar cells accompanied with the tremendous headroom available for improving the III-V solar cell efficiencies, the future prospects for successful integration of III-V solar cell technology onto Si substrate look very promising to unlock an era of next generation of high-efficiency and low-cost photovoltaics.

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Photoluminescence studies on GaAs/Ge/Si and GaAs/SiGe/Ge/Si heterostructures after annealing and hydrogenation

Kim¹,

Kang²,

Kim³

et al. 1993

Phys. Stat. Sol. (a)

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Photoluminescence (PL) studies are performed on GaAs layers on Si substrates with Ge and SiGe/Ge buffers. The Ge acceptor‐related free to bound emission peak at 1.45eV was caused by Ge which outdiffused from the buffers during the growth. The tensile stress induced in the GaAs epitaxial layer increased after rapid thermal annealing, and returned to its residual value after subsequent atomic hydrogenation. The PL intensities of the neutral carbon acceptor‐related emission increased due to the neutralization of carbon ions after hydrogenation. These results indicate that the crystallinity of the GaAs epilayer is improved after annealing and hydrogenation.

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Metalorganic chemical vapor deposition of GaAs on Si for solar cell applications

Cited by 61 publications

References 7 publications

Control of Crack Formation for the Fabrication of Crack-Free and Self-Isolated High-Efficiency Gallium Arsenide Photovoltaic Cells on Silicon Substrate

Control of Crack Formation for the Fabrication of Crack-Free and Self-Isolated High-Efficiency Gallium Arsenide Photovoltaic Cells on Silicon Substrate

III–V Multijunction Solar Cell Integration with Silicon: Present Status, Challenges and Future Outlook

Photoluminescence studies on GaAs/Ge/Si and GaAs/SiGe/Ge/Si heterostructures after annealing and hydrogenation

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