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At least 91 records · Page 5
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2018

Photodetectors with an InGaAs Active Region and InGaP Metamorphic Buffer Layer Grown on GaAs Substrates

The results of studying the reverse dark currents of photodiodes for a wavelength of 1.06 μm grown on a GaAs substrate with the help of an InGaP metamorphic buffer layer are presented. The metalorganic chemical vapor epitaxy (MOCVD) growth technology of InGaP metamorphic buffer layers with a stepwise composition variation is developed. Photodiodes with a photosensitive area of 1 mm in diameter and radiation input through the substrate are fabricated. The photodiode dark current at room temperature and reverse bias of –3 V was 50 nA. It is assumed that the bulk component of the dark current is caused by the tunneling mechanism through the trap levels.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2015

Improvement of the interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction by introducing a Ta buffer layer

We report systematic measurements of the interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (iDMI) by employing Brillouin light scattering in Pt/Co/AlO{sub x} and Ta/Pt/Co/AlO{sub x} structures. By introducing a tantalum buffer layer, the saturation magnetization and the interfacial perpendicular magnetic anisotropy are significantly improved due to the better interface between heavy metal and ferromagnetic layer. From the frequency shift between Stokes- and anti-Stokes spin-waves, we successively obtain considerably larger iDM energy densities (D{sub max} = 1.65 ± 0.13 mJ/m{sup 2} at t{sub Co} = 1.35 nm) upon adding the Ta buffer layer, despite the nominally identical interface materials. Moreover, the energy density shows an inverse proportionality with the Co layer thickness, which is the critical clue that the observed iDMI is indeed originating from the interface between the Pt and Co layers.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

A comparative study of the annealing behavior of Cu(In,Ga)(S,Se){sub 2} based solar cells with an indium sulfide buffer layer, partly submitted to wet chemical treatments

Indium sulfide thin films deposited via thermal evaporation from compound source material have been successfully utilized as a cadmium free buffer layer for Cu(In,Ga)Se{sub 2} based solar cells. However, high efficiencies are only reached after an additional annealing step. In this work, the annealing behavior of Cu(In,Ga)(S,Se){sub 2} based indium sulfide buffered solar cells is compared to the annealing behavior of similar cells, which were submitted to wet chemical treatments partly containing cadmium ions. Upon annealing a significant improvement of the initial solar cell characteristics is observed for the untreated cell and is related to the increase of activation energy for the carrier recombination process and a decrease of the ideality factor within the one diode model. It is shown here that this improvement can also be achieved by wet treatments of the absorber prior to buffer layer deposition. Upon annealing these treated cells still gain in collection length but lose open circuit voltage, which is explained here within a model including a highly p-doped absorber surface layer and supported by simulations showing that a decrease in doping density of such a surface layer would lead to the observed effects.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2015

Modification of electron states in CdTe absorber due to a buffer layer in CdTe/CdS solar cells

By application of the ac admittance spectroscopy method, the defect state energy distributions were determined in CdTe incorporated in thin film solar cell structures concluded on ZnO, ZnSe, and ZnS buffer layers. Together with the Mott-Schottky analysis, the results revealed a strong modification of the defect density of states and the concentration of the uncompensated acceptors as influenced by the choice of the buffer layer. In the solar cells formed on ZnSe and ZnS, the Fermi level and the energy position of the dominant deep trap levels were observed to shift closer to the midgap of CdTe, suggesting the mid-gap states may act as recombination centers and impact the open-circuit voltage and the fill factor of the solar cells. For the deeper states, the broadening parameter was observed to increase, indicating fluctuations of the charge on a microscopic scale. Such changes can be attributed to the grain-boundary strain and the modification of the charge trapped at the grain-boundary interface states in polycrystalline CdTe.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2014

Calcium manganate: A promising candidate as buffer layer for hybrid halide perovskite photovoltaic-thermoelectric systems

We have systematically studied the feasibility of CaMnO{sub 3} thin film, an n-type perovskite, to be utilized as the buffer layer for hybrid halide perovskite photovoltaic-thermoelectric device. Locations of the conduction band and the valence band, spontaneous polarization performance, and optical properties were investigated. Results indicate the energy band of CaMnO{sub 3} can match up well with that of CH{sub 3}NH{sub 3}PbI{sub 3} on separating electron-hole pairs. In addition, the consistent polarization angle helps enlarge the open circuit voltage of the composite system. Besides, CaMnO{sub 3} film shows large absorption coefficient and low extinction coefficient under visible irradiation, demonstrating high carrier concentration, which is beneficial to the current density. More importantly, benign thermoelectric properties enable CaMnO{sub 3} film to assimilate phonon vibration from CH{sub 3}NH3PbI{sub 3}. All the above features lead to a bright future of CaMnO{sub 3} film, which can be a promising candidate as a buffer layer for hybrid halide perovskite photovoltaic-thermoelectric systems.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2015

Methods of producing free-standing semiconductors using sacrificial buffer layers and recyclable substrates

A method of producing semiconductor materials and devices that incorporate the semiconductor materials are provided. In particular, a method is provided of producing a semiconductor material, such as a III-V semiconductor, on a spinel substrate using a sacrificial buffer layer, and devices such as photovoltaic cells that incorporate the semiconductor materials. The sacrificial buffer material and semiconductor materials may be deposited using lattice-matching epitaxy or coincident site lattice-matching epitaxy, resulting in a close degree of lattice matching between the substrate material and deposited material for a wide variety of material compositions. The sacrificial buffer layer may be dissolved using an epitaxial liftoff technique in order to separate the semiconductor device from the spinel substrate, and the spinel substrate may be reused in the subsequent fabrication of other semiconductor devices. The low-defect density semiconductor materials produced using this method result in the enhanced performance of the semiconductor devices that incorporate the semiconductor materials.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2014

Observation of hole injection boost via two parallel paths in Pentacene thin-film transistors by employing Pentacene: 4, 4″-tris(3-methylphenylphenylamino) triphenylamine: MoO{sub 3} buffer layer

Pentacene organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs) were prepared by introducing 4, 4″-tris(3-methylphenylphenylamino) triphenylamine (m-MTDATA): MoO{sub 3}, Pentacene: MoO{sub 3}, and Pentacene: m-MTDATA: MoO{sub 3} as buffer layers. These OTFTs all showed significant performance improvement comparing to the reference device. Significantly, we observe that the device employing Pentacene: m-MTDATA: MoO{sub 3} buffer layer can both take advantage of charge transfer complexes formed in the m-MTDATA: MoO{sub 3} device and suitable energy level alignment existed in the Pentacene: MoO{sub 3} device. These two parallel paths led to a high mobility, low threshold voltage, and contact resistance of 0.72 cm{sup 2}/V s, −13.4 V, and 0.83 kΩ at V{sub ds} = − 100 V. This work enriches the understanding of MoO{sub 3} doped organic materials for applications in OTFTs.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2015

Influence of buffer-layer construction and substrate orientation on the electron mobilities in metamorphic In{sup 0.70}Al{sup 0.30}As/In{sup 0.76}Ga{sup 0.24}As/In{sup 0.70}Al{sup 0.30}As structures on GaAs substrates

The influence of construction of the buffer layer and misorientation of the substrate on the electrical properties of In{sup 0.70}Al{sup 0.30}As/In{sup 0.76}Ga{sup 0.24}As/In{sup 0.70}Al{sup 0.30}As quantum wells on a GaAs substrate is studied. The temperature dependences (in the temperature range of 4.2 K < T < 300 K) and field dependences (in magnetic fields as high as 6 T) of the sample resistances are measured. Anisotropy of the resistances in different crystallographic directions is detected; this anisotropy depends on the substrate orientation and construction of the metamorphic buffer layer. In addition, the Hall effect and the Shubnikov–de Haas effect are studied. The Shubnikov–de Haas effect is used to determine the mobilities of electrons separately in several occupied dimensionally quantized subbands in different crystallographic directions. The calculated anisotropy of mobilities is in agreement with experimental data on the anisotropy of the resistances.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2019

Influence of a por-Si Buffer Layer on the Optical Properties of Epitaxial In{sub x}Ga{sub 1 –x}N/Si(111) Heterostructures with a Nanocolumnar Film Morphology

Integrated heterostructures exhibiting a nanocolumnar morphology of the In{sub x}Ga{sub 1 –x}N film are grown on a single-crystal silicon substrate (c-Si(111)) and a substrate with a nanoporous buffer sublayer (por-Si) by molecular-beam epitaxy with the plasma activation of nitrogen. Using a complex of spectroscopic methods of analysis, it is shown that the growth of In{sub x}Ga{sub 1 –x}N nanocolumns on the por-Si buffer layer offer a number of advantages over growth on the c-Si substrate. Raman and ultraviolet spectroscopy data support the inference about the growth of a nanocolumn structure and agree with the previously obtained X-ray diffraction (XRD) data indicative of the strained, unrelaxed state of the In{sub x}Ga{sub 1 –x}N layer. The growth of In{sub x}Ga{sub 1 –x}N nanocolumns on the por-Si layer positively influences the optical properties of the heterostructures. At the same half-width of the emission line in the photoluminescence spectrum, the emission intensity for the heterostructure sample grown on the por-Si buffer layer is ~25% higher than the emission intensity for the film grown on the c-Si substrate.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2016

Annealing induced structural changes in amorphous Co{sub 23}Fe{sub 60}B{sub 17} film on Mo buffer layer

Structural changes occurring in a thin amorphous Co{sub 23}Fe{sub 60}B{sub 17} film sandwiched between two Mo layers, as a function of thermal annealing has been studied. Thermal stability of the Co{sub 23}Fe{sub 60}B{sub 17} film is found to be significantly lower than the bulk ribbons. SIMS measurements show that during crystallization, boron which is expelled out of the crystallites, has a tendency to move towards the surface. No significant diffusion of boron in Mo buffer layer is observed. This result is in contrast with some earlier studies where it was proposed that the role of buffer layer of refractory metal is to absorb boron which is expelled out of the bcc FeCo phase during crystallization.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2024

Buffer-layer-controlled nickeline vs zinc-blende/wurtzite-type MnTe growths on c -plane Al 2 O 3 substrates

In the recent past, MnTe has proven to be a crucial component of the intrinsic magnetic topological insulator (IMTI) family [MnTe] m [Bi2Te 3 ] n , which hosts a wide range of magneto-topological properties depending on the choice of m and n. However, bulk crystal growth allows only a few combinations of m and n for these IMTIs due to the strict limitations of the thermodynamic growth conditions. One way to overcome this challenge is to utilize atomic layer-by-layer molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) technique, which allows arbitrary sequences of [MnTe]m and [Bi 2 Te 3 ] n to be formed beyond the thermodynamic limit. For such MBE growth, finding optimal growth templates and conditions for the parent building block, MnTe, is a key requirement. Here, we report that two different hexagonal phases of MnTe - nickeline (NC) and zinc-blende/wurtzite (ZB-WZ) structures, with distinct in-plane lattice constants of 4.20 ± 0.04 Å and 4.39 ± 0.04 Å, respectively - can be selectively grown on c-plane Al 2 O 3 substrates using different buffer layers and growth temperatures. Moreover, we provide the first comparative studies of different MnTe phases using atomic-resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy and show that ZB and WZ-like stacking sequences can easily alternate between the two. Surprisingly, In 2 Se 3 buffer layer, despite its lattice constant (4.02 Å) being closer to that of the NC phase, fosters the ZB-WZ instead, whereas Bi 2 Te 3 , sharing the same lattice constant (4.39 Å) with the ZB-WZ phase, fosters the NC phase. Furthermore, these discoveries suggest that lattice matching is not always the most critical factor determining the preferred phase during epitaxial growth. Overall, this will deepen our understanding of epitaxial growth modes for chalcogenide materials and accelerate progress toward new IMTI phases as well as other magneto-topological applications.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2022

Solar cell comprising a metal-oxide buffer layer and method of fabrication

A perovskite-based solar cell comprising a transparent electrode disposed on a buffer layer that protects the perovskite from damage during the deposition of the electrode is disclosed. The buffer material is deposited using either low-temperature atomic-layer deposition, chemical-vapor deposition, or pulsed chemical-vapor deposition. In some embodiments, the perovskite material is operative as an absorption layer in a multi-cell solar-cell structure. In some embodiments, the perovskite material is operative as an absorption layer in a single junction solar cell structure.

Bush, Kevin Alexander↗
DOE OSTI2024

The Microscopic Mechanism of Lithiation and Delithiation in the Ag/C Buffer Layer for Anode‐Free Solid‐State Batteries

Abstract Lithium metal solid‐state batteries (LMSSBs) have demonstrated their high energy density and cycling performance at high current densities in an anode‐free architecture, featuring a thin Ag/C composite buffer layer (BL) between the current collector (CC) and the solid electrolyte (SE). This study explains the microscopic mechanism of the Ag/C BL by using first‐principles atomistic and continuum modeling. It is shown that Ag effectively acts as a homogeneous solid‐solution beyond AgLi 2.32 and maintains a positive potential even at AgLi 25 during lithiation. Key factors underlying the working of the Ag/C BL include lower interfacial resistance at the BL/CC interface than at the BL/SE interface, leading to predominant Li deposition on BL/CC, and substantial Ag–Li volume expansion during lithiation. This, combined with stronger BL/SE adhesion, causes BL/SE separation and Ag–Li extrusion toward the CC side. During delithiation, Ag re‐precipitates as nanoparticles uniformly on the CC, with its positive lithiation potential homogenizing Li currents in subsequent cycles. Other metals are less effective due to their relatively large overpotential, premature lithiation termination, and limited volume expansions hindering movement toward the CC. The study aids the BL design, focusing on metal choice and optimization material and microstructural properties, such as the Li‐ion conductivity and interfacial resistance.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2019

Undoped High-Resistance GaN Buffer Layer for AlGaN/GaN High-Electron-Mobility Transistors

It is shown that intentionally undoped high-resistance GaN buffer layers in AlGaN/GaN heterostructures with high electron mobility for transistors can be formed by ammonia molecular beam epitaxy. The GaN growth conditions have been optimized using calculations of the background impurity and point defect concentrations at different ratios of the gallium and ammonia fluxes.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2019

Nanostructured silicon substrates of nanopore morphology for buffer-layer free nanoheteroepitaxial growth of InP films

To reduce the cost of III–V solar cells, a buffer-layer free method of depositing high-quality III–V thin films onto low-cost silicon nanostructured substrates is proposed that is enabled by stress relaxation due to the nanopore morphology of the silicon substrate. As a proof-of-concept test of the proposed method, the nanoheteroepitaxial deposition of high quality InP thin film is examined. By comparing the deposition of InP (under conditions optimized for InP deposition onto InP substrates) onto nanostructured Si(100) substrates with nanopore and nanopillar morphologies, the morphology of nanopores is found to be preferred for the nanoheteroepitaxial deposition of InP films.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2023

Enhancing the electron mobility in Si-doped (010) β-Ga 2 O 3 films with low-temperature buffer layers

We demonstrate a new substrate cleaning and buffer growth scheme in β-Ga 2 O 3 epitaxial thin films using metal–organic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE). For the channel structure, a low-temperature (LT, 600 °C) un-doped Ga 2 O 3 buffer was grown, followed by a transition layer to a high-temperature (HT, 810 °C) Si-doped Ga 2 O 3 channel layers without growth interruption. The (010) Ga 2 O 3 Fe-doped substrate cleaning uses solvent cleaning, followed by additional hydrofluoric acid (49% in water) treatment for 30 min before the epilayer growth. This step is shown to compensate the parasitic Si channel at the epilayer–substrate interface that originates from the substrate polishing process or contamination from the ambient. From secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) analysis, the Si peak atomic density at the substrate interface is found to be several times lower than the Fe atomic density in the substrate—indicating full compensation. The elimination of the parasitic electron channel at the epi–substrate interface was also verified by electrical (capacitance–voltage profiling) measurements. In the LT-grown (600 °C) buffer layers, it is seen that the Fe forward decay tail from the substrate is very sharp, with a decay rate of ∼9 nm/dec. X-ray off-axis rocking curve ω-scans show very narrow full width at half maximum (FWHM) values, similar to the as-received substrates. These channels show record high electron mobility in the range of 196–85 cm 2 /V⋅s in unintentionally doped and Si-doped films in the doping range of 2 × 10 16 –1 × 10 20 cm −3 . Si delta-doped channels were also grown utilizing this substrate cleaning and the hybrid LT buffers. Record high electron Hall mobility of 110 cm 2 /V⋅s was measured for sheet charge density of 9.2 × 10 12 cm −2 . This substrate cleaning, combined with the LT buffer scheme, shows the potential of designing Si-doped β-Ga 2 O 3 channels with exceptional transport properties for high-performance Ga 2 O 3 -based electron devices.

Bhattacharyya, Arkka↗
DOE OSTI2019

Ellipsometric Method for Measuring the CdTe Buffer-Layer Temperature in the Molecular-Beam Epitaxy of CdHgTe

An ellipsometric procedure developed for noncontact in situ measurement of the CdTe buffer-layer temperature is presented. The procedure is based on the temperature dependence of the energy position of CdTe critical points and is intended for determining the initial temperature of the growth surface before epitaxy of the cadmium–mercury–telluride compound. An express method for determining the position of critical points by the spectra of ellipsometric parameter Ψ is proposed. A series of calibrated experiments is performed. They result in determination of the temperature dependences of the position of critical points. Estimations and the experiment show that the temperature-measurement accuracy is ±3°C.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗