Advancement of Heteroepitaxial III-V/Si Thin Films through Defect Characterization

Julia I. Deitz, David W. McComb, Tyler J. Grassman
2016 Microscopy and Microanalysis  
III-V semiconductor materials heteroepitaxially integrated with low-cost Si substrates present a potentially disruptive solar cell technology, providing the combination of highly efficient devices at low manufacturing cost, as well as being relevant to a wide range of other (opto)electronic applications. However, for the integration of materials with significant dissimilarities (e.g. lattice constant, crystal structure, bond chemistry, etc.), various detrimental defects can form and degrade
more » ... ce performance. Of particular interest are misfit and threading dislocations which arise due to lattice mismatch, because they tend to act as charge carrier recombination centers. To date, the detailed mechanisms behind dislocation formation, dislocation dynamics, and dislocation electronic behavior are still not completely understood-especially within a heterovalent system, with its itinerant complexities, like that of III-V/Si-and this information will be imperative for the engineering of higher performance photovoltaics (PV). In this contribution, defect characterization is performed for the GaP/Si system via electron channeling contrast imaging (ECCI), highlighting relevant growth-dislocation relationships along with opportunities for different microscopy methods to gain insight into the nature of the dislocations. 1538
doi:10.1017/s1431927616008539 fatcat:cseosvszbzdslcn33yi25jr7je