Time-resolved PL and TEM studies of MOVPE-grown bulk dilute nitride and bismide quantum well heterostructure

Abstract

Among several approaches proposed to achieve high-efficiency III-V multi-junction solar cells, the most promising approach is to incorporate a bottom junction consisting of a 1 – 1.25 eV material. In particular, several research groups have studied MBE- and MOVPE-grown 1 – 1.25 eV bulk (In)GaAsN(Sb) dilute nitride lattice matched to GaAs substrates, but it is a challenge to grow dilute nitrides without introducing a number of localized states or defects. Localized states originating from random distributions of nitrogen sites in dilute nitrides behave as highly efficient traps, leading to short minority carrier lifetimes. As our group previously reported, carrier dynamics studies are indispensable in the optimization of dilute nitride materials growth to achieve improved solar cell performance. Also, bismide QW heterostructures have recently received a great deal of attention for applications in solar cells and semiconductor lasers because theoretical studies have predicted reduction in nonradiative recombination in Bicontaining materials. For the present study, we employed time-resolved photoluminescence (TR-PL) techniques to study carrier dynamics in MOVPE-grown bulk (In)GaAsN(Sb) materials nominally lattice matched to GaAs substrates. Compared to our previous samples, our present samples grown using different metalorganic precursors at higher growth temperatures showed a significantly less background C doping density. Carrier lifetimes were measured from such dilute nitride samples with low C doping density at various temperatures between 10K and RT. We also performed preliminary TR-PL measurements on MOVPE-grown bismide QW heterostructures at low temperatures. Carrier lifetimes were measured from as-grown and annealed bismide QW structures consisting of GaAsBi(P) wells and GaAsP barriers. Lastly, TEM cross sections were prepared from both dilute nitride and bismide samples for defect and composition analysis using a high resolution TEM.