Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-4hhp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-20T16:43:12.941Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Low Temperature Metalorganic Chemical Vapor Deposition of Semiconductor Thin Films for Surface Passivation of Photovoltaic Devices

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2016

Sneha Banerjee
Affiliation:
ECSE Department, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 110 8th Street, Troy, NY-12180, U.S.A.
Rajendra Dahal
Affiliation:
ECSE Department, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 110 8th Street, Troy, NY-12180, U.S.A.
Ishwara Bhat*
Affiliation:
ECSE Department, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 110 8th Street, Troy, NY-12180, U.S.A.
*
*(Email: bhati@rpi.edu)
Get access

Abstract

Three II-VI wide bandgap compound semiconductors have been investigated for surface passivation of various photovoltaic devices. First part of this work focuses on the surface passivation of HgCdTe IR detectors using CdTe. A new metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) process has been developed that involves depositing CdTe films at much lower temperature (< 175°C) than the conventional processes used till now. Deposition rate as high as 420nm/h was obtained using this novel experimental setup. Favorable conformal coverage on high aspect ratio HgCdTe devices along with a significant minority carrier lifetime improvement was obtained. Another II-VI semiconductor, namely, CdS was investigated as a surface passivant for HgCdTe IR detectors. It was deposited by MOCVD as well as atomic layer deposition (ALD) and was studied for optimal conformal coverage on high aspect ratio structures. Surface passivation of p-type Si wafer has also been demonstrated using p-ZnTe grown by MOCVD, for possible application in solar cells. Preliminary work showed a remarkable improvement in the minority carrier lifetime of Si light absorbing layer after passivation with a thin layer of ZnTe.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2016 

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

REFERENCES

Wilks, S. P., “Engineering and Investigating the Control of Semiconductor Surfaces and Interfaces,” J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys., vol. 35, pp. R77R90, Sep. 2002.Google Scholar
Nicollian, E. H., “Surface Passivation of Semiconductors,” J. Vac. Sci. Technol., vol. 8, no. 5, pp. S39S49, Jun. 1971.Google Scholar
Gregor, L. V., “Passivation of Semiconductor Surfaces,” Solid State Technol., vol. 14, no. 4, pp. 3743, Jan. 1971.Google Scholar
Rutkowski, J. et al., “HgCdTe Photodiode Passivated with a Wide-bandgap Epitaxial Layer,” Proc. SPIE 3629, Photodetectors: Materials and Devices IV, San Jose, CA, 1999, pp. 416423.Google Scholar
Lee, Y. H. J. et al., “Improved GaAs Nanowire Solar Cells using AlGaAs for Surface Passivation,” Optoelectronic and Microelectronic Materials & Devices (COMMAD), Melbourne, VIC, 2012, pp. 131132.Google Scholar
Danek, M. et al., “Synthesis of Luminescent Thin-Film CdSe/ZnSe Quantum Dot Composites using CdSe Quantum Dots Passivated with an Overlayer of ZnSe,” Chem. Mater., vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 173180, Jan. 1996.Google Scholar
Nemirovsky, Y. and Bahir, G., “Passivation of Mercury Cadmium Telluride Surfaces,” J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A, vol. 7, pp. 450459, Mar. 1989.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nemirovsky, Y. et al. , “Passivation of HgCdTe,” in Properties of Narrow Gap Cadmium Based Compounds, Capper, P., Ed. London, UK: INSPEC, 1994, pp. 284287.Google Scholar
Kumar, V. et al. , “A CdTe Passivation Process for Long Wavelength Infrared HgCdTe Photo-detectors,” J. Electron. Mater., vol. 34, pp. 12251229, Sep. 2005.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bahir, G. et al., “Electrical Properties of Epitaxially Grown CdTe Passivation for Long-wavelength HgCdTe Photodiodes,” Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 65, no. 21, pp. 27252727, Nov. 1994.Google Scholar
Nemirovsky, Y. et al., “Metalorganic Chemical Vapor Deposition CdTe Passivation of HgCdTe,” J. Electron. Mater., vol. 24, no. 5, pp. 647654, May 1995.Google Scholar
Sarusi, G. et al., “Application of CdTe epitaxial layers for passivation of p-Hg0.77Cd0.23Te,” J. Appl. Phys., vol. 71, no. 10, pp. 50705076, May 1992.Google Scholar
Ariel, V. et al., “Electrical and Structural Properties of Epitaxial CdTe/HgCdTe Interfaces,” J. Electron. Mater., vol. 24, no. 9, pp. 11691174, Sep. 1995.Google Scholar
Singh, R. R. et al., “Investigation of Passivation Processes for HgCdTe/CdS Structure for Infrared Application,” Thin Solid Films, vol. 510, pp. 235240, Jul. 2006.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ziegler, J. P. et al., “Passivation of HgCdTe with CdS Thin Films: Correlation of Device Characteristics with Surface Spectroscopy,” J. Appl. Phys., vol. 65, no. 6, pp. 25232529, Mar. 1989.Google Scholar
Kaciulis, S. et al., “Characterization Study of CdS Passivation Layers on HgxCd1-xTe,” Mat. Sci. Eng. B, vol. 28, pp. 4346, Dec. 1994.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tanaka, M. et al., “Development of new a-Si/c-Si heterojunction solar cells: ACJ-HIT (artificially constructed junction-heterojunction with intrinsic thin-layer),” Jpn. J. Appl. Phys., Part 1, vol. 31, pp. 35183522, Nov. 1992.Google Scholar
Panasonic. (2014). Panasonic HIT Solar Cell Achieves World's Highest Energy Conversion Efficiency of 25.6% at Research Level [Online]. Available: http://news.panasonic.com/press/news/official.data/data.dir/2014/04/en140410-4/en140410-4.html [Date Last Accessed: Apr. 11, 2016].Google Scholar
Taguchi, M. et al., “24.7% Record Efficiency HIT Solar Cell on Thin Silicon Wafer,” IEEE J. Photovolt., vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 9699, Jan. 2014.Google Scholar
Feh, M. et al., “Metastable Defect Formation at Microvoids Identified as a Source of Light-induced Degradation in a-Si:H,” Phys. Rev. Lett., vol. 112, pp. 066403–1-066403-5, Feb. 2014.Google Scholar
Banerjee, S. et al., “Surface Passivation of HgCdTe using Low-Pressure Chemical Vapor Deposition of CdTe,” J. Electron. Mater., vol. 43, no. 8, pp. 30123017, Aug. 2014.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Banerjee, S. et al., “A Novel Method to Obtain Higher Deposition Rates of CdTe Using Low Temperature LPCVD for Surface Passivation of HgCdTe,” J. Electron. Mater., vol. 44, no. 9, pp. 30233029, Sep. 2015.Google Scholar
Borrego, J. M. et al., “Non-destructive Lifetime Measurement in Silicon Wafers by Microwave Reflection,” Solid State Electron., vol. 30, no. 2, pp. 195203, Feb. 1987.Google Scholar
Su, P. Y. et al., “CdTe/ZnTe/GaAs Heterostructures Single-crystal CdTe Solar Cells,” J. Electron. Mater., vol. 43, no. 8, pp. 28952900, Aug. 2014.CrossRefGoogle Scholar