| 1. |
- Syväjärvi, Mikael, et al.
(author)
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Cubic silicon carbide as a potential photovoltaic material
- 2016
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In: Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells. - : Elsevier. - 0927-0248 .- 1879-3398. ; 145, s. 104-108
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In this work we present a significant advancement in cubic silicon carbide (3C-SiC) growth in terms of crystal quality and domain size, and indicate its potential use in photovoltaics. To date, the use of 3C-SiC for photovoltaics has not been considered due to the band gap of 2.3 eV being too large for conventional solar cells. Doping of 3C-SiC with boron introduces an energy level of 0.7 eV above the valence band. Such energy level may form an intermediate band (IB) in the band gap. This IB concept has been presented in the literature to act as an energy ladder that allows absorption of sub-bandgap photons to generate extra electron-hole pairs and increase the efficiency of a solar cell. The main challenge with this concept is to find a materials system that could realize such efficient photovoltaic behavior. The 3C-SiC bandgap and boron energy level fits nicely into the concept, but has not been explored for an IB behavior. For a long time crystalline 3C-SiC has been challenging to grow due to its metastable nature. The material mainly consists of a large number of small domains if the 3C polytype is maintained. In our work a crystal growth process was realized by a new approach that is a combination of initial nucleation and step-flow growth. In the process, the domains that form initially extend laterally to make larger 3C-SiC domains, thus leading to a pronounced improvement in crystalline quality of 3C-SiC. In order to explore the feasibility of IB in 3C-SiC using boron, we have explored two routes of introducing boron impurities; ion implantation on un-doped samples and epitaxial growth on un-doped samples using pre-doped source material. The results show that 3C-SiC doped with boron is an optically active material, and thus is interesting to be further studied for IB behavior. For the ion implanted samples the crystal quality was maintained even after high implantation doses and subsequent annealing. The same was true for the samples grown with pre-doped source material, even with a high concentration of boron impurities. We present optical emission and absorption properties of as-grown and boron implanted 3C-SiC. The low-temperature photoluminescence spectra indicate the formation of optically active deep boron centers, which may be utilized for achieving an IB behavior at sufficiently high dopant concentrations. We also discuss the potential of boron doped 3C-SiC base material in a broader range of applications, such as in photovoltaics, biomarkers and hydrogen generation by splitting water.
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| 2. |
- Liang, H. L., et al.
(author)
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Growth of single-phase Mg0.3Zn0.7O films suitable for solar-blind optical devices on RS-MgO substrates
- 2012
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In: Thin Solid Films. - : Elsevier BV. - 0040-6090 .- 1879-2731. ; 520:6, s. 1705-1708
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Single-phase rock-salt Mg0.3Zn0.7O film was fabricated on MgO (100) substrate by radio-frequency plasma assisted molecular beam epitaxy. A smooth surface was observed by in-situ reflection high-energy electron diffraction and ex-situ atomic force microscopy. X-ray diffraction characterization demonstrated a high-quality single-phase structure with highly (200) orientation and cube-on-cube epitaxial relationship. Zn fraction in the single-phase rock-salt Mg0.3Zn0.7O film was determined by Rutherford backscattering spectrometry. Optical property of the film was investigated by reflectance spectroscopy, which indicated a solar-blind band gap of 255.5 nm. The reason why Zn solubility limit is greatly enhanced in non-polar (100) film compared with (111) polar epilayer is tentatively discussed in this work, suggesting MgO (100) is more suitable for the synthesis of single-phase rock-salt MgZnO with high Zn content towards solar-blind opto-device applications.
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| 3. |
- Liang, H. L., et al.
(author)
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High Zn content single-phase RS-MgZnO suitable for solar-blind frequency applications
- 2010
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In: 2010 Wide Bandgap Cubic Semiconductors. - : American Institute of Physics (AIP). - 9780735408470 ; , s. 185-190
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Single-phase rock-salt MgZnO films with high Zn content were successfully fabricated on the templates of MgO (111)/α-sapphire (0001) by radio-frequency plasma assisted molecular beam epitaxy. The influence of growth temperature on epitaxy of MgZnO alloy films was investigated by the combined studies of crystal structures, compositions, and optical properties. It is found that the incorporation of Zn atoms into the rock-salt MgZnO films is greatly enhanced at low temperature, confirmed by in-situ reflection high-energy electron diffraction observations and ex-situ X-ray diffraction characterization. Zn fraction in the single-phase rock-salt Mg 0.53Zn0.47O film was determined by Rutherford backscattering spectrometry. Optical properties of the films were investigated by transmittance spectroscopy and reflectance spectroscopy, both of which demonstrate the solar-blind band gap and its dependence on Zn content.
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