Single crystalline-like germanium films on flexible, lattice mismatched substrates for photovoltaic applications

Author

Selvamanickam, V. ; Sambandam, S. ; Sundaram, A. ; Lee, S. ; Xiong, X.

Author_Institution

Univ. of Houston, Houston, TX, USA

fYear

2009

fDate

7-12 June 2009

Abstract

Single crystalline-like Ge films have been successfully grown on flexible polycrystalline substrates using templates created by ion beam assisted deposition (IBAD). No epitaxial growth was found to be possible when Ge is directly grown on MgO. However an intermediate layer of CeO₂ was found to enable epitaxial growth of Ge. Also, textured Si has been demonstrated on CeO₂-buffered IBAD templates on metal substrates. These single crystalline-like Ge films can be used as templates for growth of III-V photovoltaics on inexpensive, flexible substrates.

Keywords

buffer layers; cerium compounds; elemental semiconductors; epitaxial growth; germanium; ion beam assisted deposition; magnesium compounds; photovoltaic cells; semiconductor growth; semiconductor thin films; CeO₂; Ge; III-V photovoltaics; MgO; buffered IBAD templates; epitaxial growth; film growth; flexible-lattice mismatched polycrystalline substrates; intermediate layer; ion beam assisted deposition; metal substrates; photovoltaic applications; single crystalline-like germanium films; Crystallization; Data analysis; Degradation; Germanium; Lattices; Photovoltaic systems; Silicon; Solar power generation; System testing; Transistors;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC), 2009 34th IEEE

Conference_Location

Philadelphia, PA

ISSN

0160-8371

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-2949-3

Electronic_ISBN

0160-8371

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PVSC.2009.5411177

Filename

5411177