Title :
Growth and properties of nanocrystalline germanium and germanium-carbide films and devices
Author :
Niu, Xuejun ; Booher, Jeremy ; Dalal, Vikram L.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Iowa State Univ., Ames, IA, USA
Abstract :
Nanocrystalline Ge:H and (Ge,C):H are potentially important materials for photovoltaic energy conversion. In this paper, we report on the growth of these materials using remote ECR plasma deposition techniques. The materials were grown using a high degree of hydrogen to germane dilution. The as-grown materials had predominantly <220> orientation. Grain size was found to depend critically upon hydrogen dilution, with low hydrogen dilutions yielding larger grains. Hall measurements showed electron mobility to be as large as 6 cm2/V-sec. p-n junction devices were made in the material and showed photovoltaic effect. The quantum efficiency extended out to 0.8 eV. Addition of C to Ge reduced the crystallinity.
Keywords :
electron mobility; elemental semiconductors; germanium; germanium compounds; grain size; hydrogen; nanostructured materials; nanotechnology; p-n junctions; plasma deposition; semiconductor growth; semiconductor thin films; Ge:H; GeC:H; Hall measurements; electron mobility; germane dilution; germanium-carbide films; grain size; hydrogen dilution; nanocrystalline germanium; p-n junction devices; photovoltaic energy conversion; quantum efficiency; remote ECR plasma deposition techniques; Energy conversion; Germanium; Hydrogen; Nanoscale devices; Photovoltaic systems; Plasma devices; Plasma materials processing; Plasma measurements; Plasma properties; Solar power generation;
Conference_Titel :
Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, 2005. Conference Record of the Thirty-first IEEE
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-8707-4
DOI :
10.1109/PVSC.2005.1488429
