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Large-grain (>1-mm), recrystallized germanium films on alumina, fused silica, oxide-coated silicon substrates for III–V solar cell applications
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Large-grain (>1-mm), recrystallized germanium films on alumina, fused silica, oxide-coated silicon substrates for III–V solar cell applications

Michael G. Mauk, Jeremy R. Balliet and Bryan W. Feyock
Journal of crystal growth, v 250(1), pp 50-56
01 Mar 2003
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-0248(02)02213-3

Abstract

A1. Recrystallization B1. GaAS B1. Germanium B3. Solar cells
Recrystallized germanium films on ceramics and other materials can serve as a low-cost replacement for the single-crystal germanium wafers currently used for high-efficiency III–V semiconductor solar cells. Related work implies that Ge films with large-grain sizes (>1 mm) formed on thermal-expansion matched substrates, such as sintered alumina ceramic, would function as suitable alternative substrates for epitaxy of high-performance GaAs-based solar cells. For this purpose, we describe a process wherein Ge layers, 0.5–5 μm thick, are deposited by close-spaced vapor transport or sputtering on sintered alumina ceramics, fused silica, or thermally oxidized polysilicon substrates, capped with metal layers deposited by electron-beam evaporation, and recrystallized in an annealing step. Post-growth, the metal cap is stripped with a selective liquid etchant. Recrystallized Ge films have large (1–5 mm) grains and highly oriented textures. These structures provide suitable substrates for epitaxy of GaAs solar cells.

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Web of Science research areas
Crystallography
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Physics, Applied
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