High-pressure MOCVD growth of InGaN thick films toward the photovoltaic applications.

The highly efficient photovoltaic cells require the In-rich InGaN film with a thickness more than 300 nm to achieve the effective photo⋅electricity energy conversion. However, the InGaN thick films suffer from poor crystalline quality and phase separations by using the conventional low-pressure metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). We report on the growth of 0.3-1 µm-thick InGaN films with a specially designed vertical-type high-pressure MOCVD at the pressure up to 2.5 atms. The In incorporation is found to be greatly enhanced at the elevated pressures although the growth temperatures are the same. The phase separations are inhibited when the growth pressure is higher than atmospheric pressure, leading to the improved crystalline quality and better surface morphologies especially for the In-rich InGaN. The In0.4Ga0.6N with the thickness of 300 nm is further demonstrated as the active region of solar cells, and the widest photoresponse range from ultraviolet to more than 750 nm is achieved.

High reactivity of H2O vapor on GaN surfaces.

Understanding the process of oxidation on the surface of GaN is important for improving metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) devices. Real-time X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy was used to observe the dynamic adsorption behavior of GaN surfaces upon irradiation of H2O, O2, N2O, and NO gases. It was found that H2O vapor has the highest reactivity on the surface despite its lower oxidation power. The adsorption behavior of H2O was explained by the density functional molecular dynamic calculation including the spin state of the surfaces. Two types of adsorbed H2O molecules were present on the (0001) (+c) surface: non-dissociatively adsorbed H2O (physisorption), and dissociatively adsorbed H2O (chemisorption) molecules that were dissociated with OH and H adsorbed on Ga atoms. H2O molecules attacked the back side of three-fold Ga atoms on the (0001̅) (-c) GaN surface, and the bond length between the Ga and N was broken. The chemisorption on the (101̅0) m-plane of GaN, which is the channel of a trench-type GaN MOS power transistor, was dominant, and a stable Ga-O bond was formed due to the elongated bond length of Ga on the surface. In the atomic layer deposition process of the Al2O3 layer using H2O vapor, the reactions caused at the interface were more remarkable for p-GaN. If unintentional oxidation can be resulted in the generation of the defects at the MOS interface, these results suggest that oxidant gases other than H2O and O2 should be used to avoid uncontrollable oxidation on GaN surfaces.

Effective silicon production from SiCl4 source using hydrogen radicals generated and transported at atmospheric pressure.

In the Siemens method, high-purity Si is produced by reducing SiHCl3 source gas with H2 ambient under atmospheric pressure. Since the pyrolysis of SiHCl3, which produces SiCl4 as a byproduct, occurs dominantly in the practical Siemens process, the Si yield is low (~30%). In the present study, we generated hydrogen radicals (H-radicals) at pressures greater than 1 atm using tungsten filaments and transported the H-radicals into a reactor. On the basis of the absorbance at 600 nm of WO3-glass exposed to H-radicals in the reactor, we observed that H-radicals with a density of ~1.1 × 1012 cm-3 were transported approximately 30 cm under 1 atm. When SiCl4 was supplied as a source into the reactor containing H-radicals and allowed to react at 850°C or 900°C, Si was produced more efficiently than in reactions conducted under H2 ambient. Because the H-radicals can effectively reduce SiCl4, which is a byproduct in the Siemens method, their use is expected to increase the Si yield for this method.

Strain-enhanced high Q-factor GaN micro-electromechanical resonator.

We report on a highly sensitive gallium nitride (GaN) micro-electromechanical (MEMS) resonator with a record quality factor (Q) exceeding 105 at the high resonant frequency (f) of 911 kHz by the strain engineering for the GaN-on-Si structure. The f of the double-clamped GaN beam bridge is increased from 139 to 911 kHz when the tensile stress is increased to 640 MPa. Although it is usually regarded that the energy dissipation increases with increasing resonant frequency, an ultra-high Q-factor which is more than two orders of magnitude higher than those of the other reported GaN-based MEMS is obtained. The high Q-factor results from the large tensile stress which can be intentionally introduced and engineered in the GaN epitaxial layer by utilizing the lattice mismatch between GaN and Si, leading to the stored elastic energy and drastically decreasing the energy dissipation. The developed GaN MEMS is further demonstrated as a highly sensitive mass sensor with a resolution of 10-12 g/s through detecting the microdroplet evaporation process. This work provides an avenue to improve the f × Q product of the MEMS through an internally strained structure.

P-Channel InGaN/GaN heterostructure metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistor based on polarization-induced two-dimensional hole gas.

The concept of p-channel InGaN/GaN heterostructure field effect transistor (FET) using a two-dimensional hole gas (2DHG) induced by polarization effect is demonstrated. The existence of 2DHG near the lower interface of InGaN/GaN heterostructure is verified by theoretical simulation and capacitance-voltage profiling. The metal-oxide-semiconductor FET (MOSFET) with Al2O3 gate dielectric shows a drain-source current density of 0.51 mA/mm at the gate voltage of -2 V and drain bias of -15 V, an ON/OFF ratio of two orders of magnitude and effective hole mobility of 10 cm(2)/Vs at room temperature. The normal operation of MOSFET without freeze-out at 8 K further proves that the p-channel behavior is originated from the polarization-induced 2DHG.

A multilevel intermediate-band solar cell by InGaN/GaN quantum dots with a strain-modulated structure.

Multiple stacked InGaN/GaN quantum dots are embedded into an InGaN p-n junction to develop multilevel intermediateband (MIB) solar cells. An IB transition is evidenced from both experiment and theoretical calculations. The MIB solar cell shows a wide photovoltaic response from the UV to the near-IR region. This work opens up an interesting opportunity for high-efficiency IB solar cells in the photovoltaics field.

A comprehensive review of semiconductor ultraviolet photodetectors: from thin film to one-dimensional nanostructures.

Ultraviolet (UV) photodetectors have drawn extensive attention owing to their applications in industrial, environmental and even biological fields. Compared to UV-enhanced Si photodetectors, a new generation of wide bandgap semiconductors, such as (Al, In) GaN, diamond, and SiC, have the advantages of high responsivity, high thermal stability, robust radiation hardness and high response speed. On the other hand, one-dimensional (1D) nanostructure semiconductors with a wide bandgap, such as ß-Ga2O3, GaN, ZnO, or other metal-oxide nanostructures, also show their potential for high-efficiency UV photodetection. In some cases such as flame detection, high-temperature thermally stable detectors with high performance are required. This article provides a comprehensive review on the state-of-the-art research activities in the UV photodetection field, including not only semiconductor thin films, but also 1D nanostructured materials, which are attracting more and more attention in the detection field. A special focus is given on the thermal stability of the developed devices, which is one of the key characteristics for the real applications.

Determination of the surface band bending in In x Ga1-x N films by hard x-ray photoemission spectroscopy.

Core-level and valence band spectra of In x Ga1-x N films were measured using hard x-ray photoemission spectroscopy (HX-PES). Fine structure, caused by the coupling of the localized Ga 3d and In 4d with N 2s states, was experimentally observed in the films. Because of the large detection depth of HX-PES (∼20 nm), the spectra contain both surface and bulk information due to the surface band bending. The In x Ga1-x N films (x = 0-0.21) exhibited upward surface band bending, and the valence band maximum was shifted to lower binding energy when the mole fraction of InN was increased. On the other hand, downward surface band bending was confirmed for an InN film with low carrier density despite its n-type conduction. Although the Fermi level (EF) near the surface of the InN film was detected inside the conduction band as reported previously, it can be concluded that EF in the bulk of the film must be located in the band gap below the conduction band minimum.

Development of a new laser heating system for thin film growth by chemical vapor deposition.

We have developed a new laser heating system for thin film growth by chemical vapor deposition (CVD). A collimated beam from a high-power continuous-wave 808 nm semiconductor laser was directly introduced into a CVD growth chamber without an optical fiber. The light path of the heating laser inside the chamber was isolated mechanically from the growth area by bellows to protect the optics from film coating. Three types of heat absorbers, (10 × 10 × 2 mm(3)) consisting of SiC, Ni/NiO(x), or pyrolytic graphite covered with pyrolytic BN (PG/PBN), located at the backside of the substrate, were tested for heating performance. It was confirmed that the substrate temperature could reach higher than 1500 °C in vacuum when a PG/PBN absorber was used. A wide-range temperature response between 400 °C and 1000 °C was achieved at high heating and cooling rates. Although the thermal energy loss increased in a H(2) gas ambient due to the higher thermal conductivity, temperatures up to 1000 °C were achieved even in 200 Torr H(2). We have demonstrated the capabilities of this laser heating system by growing ZnO films by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. The growth mode of ZnO films was changed from columnar to lateral growth by repeated temperature modulation in this laser heating system, and consequently atomically smooth epitaxial ZnO films were successfully grown on an a-plane sapphire substrate.

Communication: The reason why +c ZnO surface is less stable than -c ZnO surface: first-principles calculation.

It has been experimentally shown that an O(-c)-polar ZnO surface is more stable than a Zn(+c)-polar surface in H(2) ambient. We applied first-principles calculations to investigating the polarity dependence on the stability at the electronic level. The calculations revealed that the -c surface terminated with H atom was stable maintaining a wurtzite structure, whereas the +c surface was unstable due to the change of coordination numbers of Zn at the topmost surface from four (wurtzite) to six (rock salt). This causes the generation of O(2) molecules, resulting in instability at the +c surface.