Ghada Dushaq

Effect of atomic layer deposited Al2O3:ZnO alloys on thin-film silicon photovoltaic devices

In this work, we present the effects of the Al2O3:ZnO ratio on the optical and electrical properties of aluminum doped ZnO (AZO) layers deposited by atomic layer deposition, along with AZO application as the anti-reflective coating (ARC) layer and in heterojunction configurations. Here, we report complex refractive indices for AZO layers with different numbers of aluminum atomic cycles (ZnO:Al2O3 = 1:0, 39:1, 19:1, and 9:1) and we confirm their validity by fitting models to experimental data. Furthermore, the most conductive layer (ZnO:Al2O3 = 19:1, conductivity ∼4.6 mΩ cm) is used to fabricate AZO/n+/p-Si thin film solar cells and AZO/p-Si heterojunction devices. The impact of the AZO layer on the photovoltaic properties of these devices is studied by different characterization techniques, resulting in the extraction of recombination and energy band parameters related to the AZO layer. Our results confirm that AZO 19:1 can be used as a low cost and effective conductive ARC layer for solar cells. However,...

Structural characterization of electric-field assisted dip-coating of gold nanoparticles on silicon

We report the effect of applying an electric field on the surface coverage of 40nm gold colloidal nanoparticles on silicon wafer using dip-coating and electrochemical cell set up. By applying electric field during the dip-coating of silicon wafer in a solution of gold nano particles (GNP) the surface coverage increased by 10% when the electric field varied from 5V/cm to 25V/cm at fixed deposition time of 90s. Ultra High Resolution Scanning Electron Microscopy (HRSEM) images shows that the particle agglomeration becomes more noticeable at higher electric field and as the deposition time increases from 90 s to 20 min a thin film of gold is achieved. Moreover, the results are discussed in terms of chemical bonding, electrostatic force and electrophoretic mobility of Au nano particles during the electric field enhanced deposition on the Si surface. Applied voltage, time of dipping, concentration of the aqueous solution, and particles zeta potential are all can be controlled to enhance the uniformity and particles profile on the silicon surface.

Metal-germanium-metal photodetector grown on silicon using low temperature RF-PECVD

In this paper, germanium metal-semiconductor-metal photodetectors (MSM PDs) are fabricated on Si using a low-temperature two-step deposition technique by RF-PECVD. The photodetectors are optimized to effectively suppress the dark current through the insertion of n-type a-Si:H interlayer between the metal/Ge interface. Tuning the Schottky Barrier Height (SBH) by inserting different thickness of the interlayer is investigated. Results revealed that SBH for electrons and holes can effectively be enhanced by 0.3eV and 0.54eV, respectively. Furthermore, the dark-current (IDark) is suppressed significantly by more than four orders of magnitude. The measured IDark is ∼76 nA for an applied reverse bias of 1.0 V. Additionally, the Ge MSMs structure exhibited a photo responsivity of 0.8A/W at that bias. The proposed low-temperature (<550°C) Ge-on-Si MSM PD demonstrates a great potential for high-performance Ge-based photodetectors in monolithically integrated CMOS platform.