Heine N. Riise

The effect of millisecond flash lamp annealing on electrical and structural properties of ZnO:Al/Si structures

The effect of millisecond flash lamp annealing (FLA) on aluminum doped ZnO (AZO) films and their interface with Si have been studied. The AZO films were deposited by magnetron sputtering on Si (100) substrates. The electrical and structural properties of the film and AZO/Si structures were characterized by current–voltage, capacitance–voltage, and deep level transient spectroscopy measurements, X-ray diffraction, and secondary ion mass spectrometry. The resistivity of the AZO film is reduced to a close to state-of-the-art value of 2 × 10−4 Ω cm after FLA for 3 ms with an average energy density of 29 J/cm2. In addition, most of the interfacial defects energy levels are simultaneously annealed out, except for one persisting shallow level, tentatively assigned to the vacancy-oxygen complex in Si, which was not affected by FLA. Subsequent to the FLA, the samples were treated in N2 or forming gas (FG) (N2/H2, 90/10%mole) ambient at 200–500 °C. The latter samples maintained the low resistivity achieved after th...

Structural properties of Cu2O epitaxial films grown on c-axis single crystal ZnO by magnetron sputtering

Epitaxial Cu2O films grown by reactive and ceramic radio frequency magnetron sputtering on single crystalline ZnO (0001) substrates are investigated. The films are grown on both O- and Zn-polar surface of the ZnO substrates. The Cu2O films exhibit a columnar growth manner apart from a ∼5 nm thick CuO interfacial layer. In comparison to the reactively sputtered Cu2O, the ceramic-sputtered films are less strained and appear to contain nanovoids. Irrespective of polarity, the Cu2O grown by reactive sputtering is observed to have (111)Cu2O||(0001)ZnO epitaxial relationship, but in the case of ceramic sputtering the films are found to show additional (110)Cu2O reflections when grown on O-polar surface. The observed CuO interfacial layer can be detrimental for the performance of Cu2O/ZnO heterojunction solar cells reported in the literature.

Formation of shallow boron emitters in crystalline silicon using flash lamp annealing: Role of excess silicon interstitials

Shallow, Boron (B)-doped p+ emitters have been realized using spin-on deposition and Flash Lamp Annealing (FLA) to diffuse B into monocrystalline float zone Silicon (Si). The emitters extend between 50 and 140 nm in depth below the surface, have peak concentrations between 9 × 1019 cm–3 and 3 × 1020 cm–3, and exhibit sheet resistances between 70 and 3000 Ω/□. An exceptionally large increase in B diffusion occurs for FLA energy densities exceeding ∼93 J/cm2 irrespective of 10 or 20 ms pulse duration. The effect is attributed to enhanced diffusion of B caused by Si interstitial injection following a thermally activated reaction between the spin-on diffusant film and the silicon wafer.

Gallium diffusion in zinc oxide via the paired dopant-vacancy mechanism

Isochronal and isothermal diffusion experiments of gallium (Ga) in zinc oxide (ZnO) have been performed in the temperature range of 900–1050 °C. The samples used consisted of a sputter-deposited and highly Ga-doped ZnO film at the surface of a single-crystal bulk material. We use a novel reaction diffusion (RD) approach to demonstrate that the diffusion behavior of Ga in ZnO is consistent with zinc vacancy (VZn) mediation via the formation and dissociation of GaZnVZn complexes. In the RD modeling, experimental diffusion data are fitted utilizing recent density-functional-theory estimates of the VZn formation energy and the binding energy of GaZnVZn. From the RD modeling, a migration energy of 2.3 eV is deduced for GaZnVZn, and a total/effective activation energy of 3.0 eV is obtained for the Ga diffusion. Furthermore, and for comparison, employing the so-called Fair model, a total/effective activation energy of 2.7 eV is obtained for the Ga diffusion, reasonably close to the total value extracted from the...

Comparison of the structural properties of Zn-face and O-face single crystal homoepitaxial ZnO epilayers grown by RF-magnetron sputtering

Homoepitaxial ZnO growth is demonstrated from conventional RF-sputtering at 400 °C on both Zn and O polar faces of hydrothermally grown ZnO substrates. A minimum yield for the Rutherford backscattering and channeling spectrum, χmin, equal to ∼3% and ∼12% and a full width at half maximum of the 00.2 diffraction peak rocking curve of (70 ± 10) arc sec and (1400 ± 100) arc sec have been found for samples grown on the Zn and O face, respectively. The structural characteristics of the film deposited on the Zn face are comparable with those of epilayers grown by more complex techniques like molecular beam epitaxy. In contrast, the film simultaneously deposited on the O-face exhibits an inferior crystalline structure ∼0.7% strained in the c-direction and a higher atomic number contrast compared with the substrate, as revealed by high angle annular dark field imaging measurements. These differences between the Zn- and O-face films are discussed in detail and associated with the different growth mechanisms prevail...

Electronic properties of Au/Cu 2 O/n-type Si heterojunction for energy conversion

Au/Cu2O/n-type Si structures have been fabricated and characterized electrically. The structure yields a current rectification of almost 7 orders of magnitude. It is also shown that the structure performs as a metal/semiconductor junction when subjected to CV measurements. The Cu2O film, deposited by radio frequency magnetron sputtering is highly transparent for light of energy below the fundamental band gap, while concurrently highly absorbing of light with energy above the bandgap. It is concluded that the structure is well suited as the upper junction in a tandem junction solar cell configuration, utilizing an industrial standard Si solar cell as ‘substrate’.

Improving carrier transport in Cu 2 O thin films by rapid thermal annealing

Cuprous oxide (Cu2O) is a promising material for large scale photovoltaic applications. The efficiencies of thin film structures are, however, currently lower than those for structures based on Cu2O sheets, possibly due to their poorer transport properties. This study shows that post-deposition rapid thermal annealing (RTA) of Cu2O films is an effective approach for improving carrier transport in films prepared by reactive magnetron sputtering. The as-deposited Cu2O films were poly-crystalline, p-type, with weak near band edge (NBE) emission in photoluminescence spectra, a grain size of ~100 nm and a hole mobility of 2-18 cm2 V-1 s-1. Subsequent RTA (3 min) at a pressure of 50 Pa and temperatures of 600-1000 °C enhanced the NBE by 2-3 orders of magnitude, evidencing improved crystalline quality and reduction of non-radiative carrier recombination. Both grain size and hole mobility were increased considerably upon RTA, reaching values above 1 µm and up to 58 cm2 V-1 s-1, respectively, for films annealed at 900-1000 °C. These films also exhibited a resistivity of ~50-200 Ω cm, a hole concentration of ~1015 cm-3 at room temperature, and a transmittance above 80%.

Thin film Cu 2 O for solar cell applications

Cu₂O is a highly relevant material for application as a top cell layer in a tandem solar cell structure. Phase-pure Cu, Cu₂O and CuO have been deposited with reactive magnetron sputtering by varying the oxygen flow during the deposition from 0 to 2 sccm, using a total flow of 51 sccm. The Cu₂O films are highly transparent at wavelengths above 520 nm. The highest carrier concentration and mobility of the Cu₂O films were 2.1 × 10¹⁵ cm^-3 and 18 cm²/Vs, respectively, with a resistivity of 163 Ω cm. Two defect levels were discerned from temperature-dependent Hall measurements of 0.16 and 0.23 eV above the valence band maximum.