Optically efficient InAsSb nanowires for silicon-based mid-wavelength infrared optoelectronics.

InAsSb nanowires (NWs) with a high Sb content have potential in the fabrication of advanced silicon-based optoelectronics such as infrared photondetectors/emitters and highly sensitive phototransistors, as well as in the generation of renewable electricity. However, producing optically efficient InAsSb NWs with a high Sb content remains a challenge, and optical emission is limited to 4.0 µm due to the quality of the nanowires. Here, we report, for the first time, the success of high-quality and optically efficient InAsSb NWs enabling silicon-based optoelectronics operating in entirely mid-wavelength infrared. Pure zinc-blende InAsSb NWs were realized with efficient photoluminescence emission. We obtained room-temperature photoluminescence emission in InAs NWs and successfully extended the emission wavelength in InAsSb NWs to 5.1 µm. The realization of this optically efficient InAsSb NW material paves the way to realizing next-generation devices, combining advances in III-V semiconductors and silicon.

In-depth analysis of chloride treatments for thin-film CdTe solar cells.

CdTe thin-film solar cells are now the main industrially established alternative to silicon-based photovoltaics. These cells remain reliant on the so-called chloride activation step in order to achieve high conversion efficiencies. Here, by comparison of effective and ineffective chloride treatments, we show the main role of the chloride process to be the modification of grain boundaries through chlorine accumulation, which leads an increase in the carrier lifetime. It is also demonstrated that while improvements in fill factor and short circuit current may be achieved through use of the ineffective chlorides, or indeed simple air annealing, voltage improvement is linked directly to chlorine incorporation at the grain boundaries. This suggests that focus on improved or more controlled grain boundary treatments may provide a route to achieving higher cell voltages and thus efficiencies.

The role of transition radiation in cathodoluminescence imaging and spectroscopy of thin-foils.

There is renewed interest in cathodoluminescence (CL) in the transmission electron microscope, since it can be combined with low energy loss spectroscopy measurements and can also be used to probe defects, such as grain boundaries and dislocations, at high spatial resolution. Transition radiation (TR), which is emitted when the incident electron crosses the vacuum-specimen interface, is however an important artefact that has received very little attention. The importance of TR is demonstrated on a wedge shaped CdTe specimen of varying thickness. For small specimen thicknesses (<250nm) grain boundaries are not visible in the panchromatic CL image. Grain boundary contrast is produced by electron-hole recombination within the foil, and a large fraction of that light is lost to multiple-beam interference, so that thicker specimens are required before the grain boundary signal is above the TR background. This is undesirable for high spatial resolution. Furthermore, the CL spectrum contains additional features due to TR which are not part of the 'bulk' specimen. Strategies to minimise the effects of TR are also discussed.

Long Lifetime Hole Traps at Grain Boundaries in CdTe Thin-Film Photovoltaics.

A novel time-resolved cathodoluminescence method, where a pulsed electron beam is generated via the photoelectric effect, is used to probe individual CdTe grain boundaries. Excitons have a short lifetime (≤100 ps) within the grains and are rapidly quenched at the grain boundary. However, a ~47 meV shallow acceptor, believed to be due to oxygen, can act as a long lifetime hole trap, even at the grain boundaries where their concentration is higher. This provides direct evidence supporting recent observations of hopping conduction across grain boundaries in highly doped CdTe at low temperature.

A low-cost non-toxic post-growth activation step for CdTe solar cells.

Cadmium telluride, CdTe, is now firmly established as the basis for the market-leading thin-film solar-cell technology. With laboratory efficiencies approaching 20 per cent, the research and development targets for CdTe are to reduce the cost of power generation further to less than half a US dollar per watt (ref. 2) and to minimize the environmental impact. A central part of the manufacturing process involves doping the polycrystalline thin-film CdTe with CdCl2. This acts to form the photovoltaic junction at the CdTe/CdS interface and to passivate the grain boundaries, making it essential in achieving high device efficiencies. However, although such doping has been almost ubiquitous since the development of this processing route over 25 years ago, CdCl2 has two severe disadvantages; it is both expensive (about 30 cents per gram) and a water-soluble source of toxic cadmium ions, presenting a risk to both operators and the environment during manufacture. Here we demonstrate that solar cells prepared using MgCl2, which is non-toxic and costs less than a cent per gram, have efficiencies (around 13%) identical to those of a CdCl2-processed control group. They have similar hole densities in the active layer (9 × 10(14) cm(-3)) and comparable impurity profiles for Cl and O, these elements being important p-type dopants for CdTe thin films. Contrary to expectation, CdCl2-processed and MgCl2-processed solar cells contain similar concentrations of Mg; this is because of Mg out-diffusion from the soda-lime glass substrates and is not disadvantageous to device performance. However, treatment with other low-cost chlorides such as NaCl, KCl and MnCl2 leads to the introduction of electrically active impurities that do compromise device performance. Our results demonstrate that CdCl2 may simply be replaced directly with MgCl2 in the existing fabrication process, thus both minimizing the environmental risk and reducing the cost of CdTe solar-cell production.

Microstructure and point defects in CdTe nanowires for photovoltaic applications.

Defects in Au-catalysed CdTe nanowires vapour-liquid-solid-grown on polycrystalline underlayers have been critically evaluated. Their low-temperature photoluminescence spectra were dominated by excitonic emission with rarely observed above-gap emission also being recorded. While acceptor bound exciton lines due to monovalent metallic impurities (Ag, Cu or Na) were seen, only deeper, donor-acceptor-pair emission could be attributed to the Au contamination that is expected from the catalyst. Annealing under nitrogen acted to enhance the single crystal-like PL emission, whilst oxidizing and reducing anneals of the type that is used in solar cell device processing caused it to degrade. The incidence of stacking faults, polytypes and twins was related only to the growth axes of the wires (<111> 50%, <112> 30% and <110> 20%), and was not influenced by annealing. The potential electrical activity of the point and extended defects, and the suitability of these nanowire materials (including processing steps) for solar cell applications, is discussed. Overall they have a quality that is superior to that of thin polycrystalline films, although questions remain about recombination due to Au.

Prospects for electron microscopy characterisation of solar cells: opportunities and challenges.

Several electron microscopy techniques available for characterising thin-film solar cells are described, including recent advances in instrumentation, such as aberration-correction, monochromators, time-resolved cathodoluminescence and focused ion-beam microscopy. Two generic problems in thin-film solar cell characterisation, namely electrical activity of grain boundaries and 3D morphology of excitionic solar cells, are also discussed from the standpoint of electron microscopy. The opportunities as well as challenges facing application of these techniques to thin-film and excitonic solar cells are highlighted.

A method of normalizing cathodoluminescence images of electron transparent foils for thickness contrast applied to InGaN quantum wells.

The uniformity of panchromatic cathodoluminescence (CL) from In0.09Ga0.91N/GaN quantum wells at 100 K was investigated using a combined transmission electron microscope-cathodoluminescence instrument. A technique for correcting CL images of electron-transparent wedge specimens for thickness contrast artefacts is presented. The foil thickness was estimated using the dynamical formulation of the relationship between the thickness and the (experimentally observed) transmitted electron intensity. For a given thickness the CL intensity was calculated using the Everhart-Hoff depth-dose function and also taking into account surface recombination losses. Experimental CL images were normalized by dividing by the calculated CL value at each point. The procedure was successful in calculating the underlying materials contrast in CL images of thin specimens of InGaN single quantum wells. Non-uniformities in the CL emission on the scale of approximately 0.7 micro m were observed.