UC Berkeley

GaAs is an attractive material for thin-film photovoltaic applications, but is not widely used for terrestrial power generation due to the high cost of metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) techniques typically used for growth. Close space vapor transport is an alternative that allows for rapid growth rates of III-V materials, and does not rely on the toxic and pyrophoric precursors used in MOCVD. We characterize CSVT films of GaAs using photoelectrochemical current-voltage and quantum efficiency measurements. Hole diffusion lengths which exceed 1:5 μm are extracted from internal quantum efficiency measurements using the Gärtner model. Device physics simulations suggest that solar cells based on these films could reach efficiencies exceeding 24%. To reach this goal, a more complete understanding of the electrical properties and characterization of defects will be necessary, including measurements on complete solid-state devices. Doping of films is achieved by using source material containing the desired impurity (e.g., Te or Zn). We discuss strategies for growing III-V materials on inexpensive substrates that are not lattice-matched to GaAs. © 2013 SPIE.