GaAsSbN-based p-i-n heterostructures for solar cell applications grown by liquid-phase epitaxy

Abstract

We present an original study on quaternary GaAsSbN layers and multilayer heterostructures grown by low-temperature liquid-phase epitaxy (LPE) on GaAs substrates aiming to explore their potential for photovoltaic applications. We choose Sn and Mg as suitable dopants for practical use. Our experiments on doping reproducibly show the introduction of controlled concentrations of doping impurities in the range applicable to device fabrication. High-quality n-, p- and nearly compensated GaAsSbN layers covering a large range of carrier concentrations from 1015 to 6 × 1018 cm−3 have been grown at temperatures lower than 600 °C. The successful LPE growth of p-i-n GaAs/GaAsSbN/GaAs heterostructures based on closely compensated i-GaAsSbN is demonstrated for the first time. Temperature-dependent photoluminescence and room temperature surface photovoltage contactless characterization techniques have been used for investigation of the grown structures. These measurements have revealed high optical quality with a low concentration of localized states and red photoresponse limit extended down to 1.2 eV.