High Quality Epitaxial Germanium on Si (110) using Liquid Phase Crystallization for Low - Cost III-V Solar-Cells

Chaurasia, S and Raghavan, S and Avasthi, S (2018) High Quality Epitaxial Germanium on Si (110) using Liquid Phase Crystallization for Low - Cost III-V Solar-Cells. In: 7th IEEE World Conference on Photovoltaic Energy Conversion, WCPEC 2018, 10 - 15 June 2018, Waikoloa Village, pp. 192-195.

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Abstract

Germanium integration on silicon is required for fabricating high efficiency III-V low-cost solar cells on silicon. In this work, we present a single step thermal annealing of amorphous germanium films as a method of monolithic integration of epitaxial germanium on crystalline silicon (110) wafers. The re-crystallization progresses via liquid phase epitaxy by heating the germanium layer in inert ambient to right above its melting temperature of 937 0C. On slow cooling; the Ge layer gets oriented by the underlying Si (100) wafer, yielding an epitaxial Ge film on Si. SEM show that the films are continuous and crack free whereas XRD measurements indicated highly oriented films. 1 micron thick film had rocking curve FWHM of 0.15 degree corresponding to dislocation densities of low 109 cm-2. Also, AFM measurements indicate that 1 micron films have RMS roughness of 80nm for scan area of 25 μm2.

Item Type:	Conference Paper
Publication:	2018 IEEE 7th World Conference on Photovoltaic Energy Conversion, WCPEC 2018 - A Joint Conference of 45th IEEE PVSC, 28th PVSEC and 34th EU PVSEC
Publisher:	Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Additional Information:	The copyright for this article belongs to Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Keywords:	Amorphous films; Amorphous silicon; Costs; Energy conversion; Epitaxial growth; Germanium; Silicon; Silicon solar cells; Solar cells; Thick films, Amorphous germanium; Crystalline silicons; Dislocation densities; Epitaxial ge films; Highly oriented films; Low-cost solar cells; Monolithic integration; Thermal-annealing, Silicon wafers
Department/Centre:	Division of Interdisciplinary Sciences > Centre for Nano Science and Engineering
Date Deposited:	05 Aug 2022 05:15
Last Modified:	05 Aug 2022 05:15
URI:	https://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/75142

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