Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T04:44:35.605Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Carrier-Transport Study of Gallium Arsenide Hillock Defects

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2019

Chuanxiao Xiao ,
Chun-Sheng Jiang ,
Jun Liu ,
Andrew Norman ,
John Moseley ,
Kevin Schulte ,
Aaron J. Ptak ,
Brian Gorman ,
Mowafak Al-Jassim  and
Nancy M. Haegel
...Show all authors
Chuanxiao Xiao*
Affiliation:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO 80401, USA
Chun-Sheng Jiang
Affiliation:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO 80401, USA
Jun Liu
Affiliation:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO 80401, USA
Andrew Norman
Affiliation:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO 80401, USA
John Moseley
Affiliation:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO 80401, USA
Kevin Schulte
Affiliation:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO 80401, USA
Aaron J. Ptak
Affiliation:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO 80401, USA
Brian Gorman
Affiliation:
Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO 80401, USA
Mowafak Al-Jassim
Affiliation:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO 80401, USA
Nancy M. Haegel
Affiliation:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO 80401, USA
Helio Moutinho
Affiliation:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO 80401, USA
*
*Author for correspondence: Chuanxiao Xiao, E-mail: [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

Single-crystalline gallium arsenide (GaAs) grown by various techniques can exhibit hillock defects on the surface when sub-optimal growth conditions are employed. The defects act as nonradiative recombination centers and limit solar cell performance. In this paper, we applied near-field transport imaging to study hillock defects in a GaAs thin film. On the same defects, we also performed near-field cathodoluminescence, standard cathodoluminescence, electron-backscattered diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, and energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometry. We found that the luminescence intensity around the hillock area is two orders of magnitude lower than on the area without hillock defects in the millimeter region, and the excess carrier diffusion length is degraded by at least a factor of five with significant local variation. The optical and transport properties are affected over a significantly larger region than the observed topography and crystallographic and chemical compositions associated with the defect.

Keywords

carrier transportdefectgallium arsenidenear fieldsolar cell
Type
Materials Applications
Information
Microscopy and Microanalysis , Volume 25 , Issue 5 , October 2019 , pp. 1160 - 1166
Copyright
Copyright © Microscopy Society of America 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Attolini, G, Fornari, R, Pelosi, C, Oswald, J & Simecek, T (1986a). Impurity incorporation and structural defects in hydride VPE InP films. J Cryst Growth 79, 386–393.Google Scholar
Attolini, G, Frigeri, C, Pelosi, C & Salviati, G (1986b). Electron beam induced current and cathodoluminescence study of the recombination activity of stacking faults and hillocks in hydride vapor phase epitaxy InP. Appl Phys Lett 49, 167–169.Google Scholar
Baird, L, Ong, CP, Cole, RA, Haegel, NM, Talin, AA, Li, Q & Wang, GT (2011). Transport imaging for contact-free measurements of minority carrier diffusion in GaN, GaN/AlGaN, and GaN/InGaN core-shell nanowires. Appl Phys Lett 98, 132104.Google Scholar
Blaine, KE, Phillips, DJ, Frenzen, CL, Scandrett, C & Haegel, NM (2012). Three-dimensional transport imaging for the spatially resolved determination of carrier diffusion length in bulk materials. Rev Sci Instrum 83, 043702.Google Scholar
Boucher, J, Greenaway, A, Egelhofer, KE & Boettcher, S (2017). Analysis of performance-limiting defects in pn junction GaAs solar cells grown by water-mediated close-spaced vapor transport epitaxy. Sol Energy Mater Sol Cells 159, 546–552.Google Scholar
Haegel, NM (2013). Integrating electron and near-field optics: Dual vision for the nanoworld. Nanophotonics 3, 75–89.Google Scholar
Haegel, NM, Williams, SE, Frenzen, C & Scandrett, C (2009). Imaging charge transport and dislocation networks in ordered GaInP. Phys B Condens Matter 404, 4963–4966.Google Scholar
Kaniewska, M & Klima, K (2002). Investigations of surface defects of GaAs grown by molecular beam epitaxy. Mater Sci Eng B 91, 512–515.Google Scholar
Lazzarini, L, Salviati, G, Franchi, S & Napolitani, E (2001). A TEM and SEM-cathodoluminescence study of oval defects in graded InGaAs/GaAs buffer layers. Mater Sci Eng B 80, 120–124.Google Scholar
Little, A, Hoffman, A & Haegel, NM (2013). Optical attenuation coefficient in individual ZnO nanowires. Opt Express 21, 6321–6326.Google Scholar
Mehta, SK, Muralidharan, R, Sharda, GD & Jain, RK (1992). Some investigations on oval defects in MBE-grown GaAs. Semicond Sci Technol 7, 635.Google Scholar
Shinohara, M, Ito, T, Wada, K & Imamura, Y (1984). Electrical properties of oval defects in GaAs grown by MBE. Jpn J Appl Phys 23, L371.Google Scholar
Szerling, A, Kosiel, K, Wójcik-Jedlińska, A, Płuska, M & Bugajski, M (2006). Investigation of oval defects in (In)Ga(Al)As/GaAs heterostructures by spatially resolved photoluminescence and micro-cathodoluminescence. Mater Sci Semicond Process 9, 25–30.Google Scholar
Xiao, C, Jiang, C-S, Moseley, J, Simon, J, Schulte, K, Ptak, AJ, Johnston, S, Gorman, B, Al-Jassim, M, Haegel, NM & Moutinho, H (2017). Near-field transport imaging applied to photovoltaic materials. Sol Energy 153, 134–141.Google Scholar
Xiao, C, Li, Z, Guthrey, H, Moseley, J, Yang, Y, Wozny, S, Moutinho, H, To, B, Berry, JJ, Gorman, B, Yan, Y, Zhu, K & Al-Jassim, M (2015). Mechanisms of electron-beam-induced damage in perovskite thin films revealed by cathodoluminescence spectroscopy. J Phys Chem C 119, 26904–26911.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Xiao et al. supplementary material

Xiao et al. supplementary material

Download Xiao et al. supplementary material(File)
File 7.2 MB