Hydrazine N Source for Growth of GaInNAs for Solar Cells

We evaluate hydrazine (Hy) as a nitrogen precursor source for the growth of GaNAs and GaInNAs for application in 1-eV solar cells lattice-matched to GaAs, and compare it to the more commonly used dimethylhydrazine (DMHy). The incorporation efficiency of N into the GaNAs alloy is found to be one to two orders of magnitude higher with Hy than with DMHy. This high N incorporation makes convenientthe growth of GaNAs at higher growth temperatures, Tg=650?C, and arsine flows, AsH3/III=44, than are generally possible with the use of DMHy. GaInNAs and GaNAs solar cells are grown under these growth conditions and compared to a GaAs cell grown under the same conditions to determine the extent to which the poor minority-carrier properties routinely observed for the N-containing material can beattributed to the growth conditions. Finally, the background carrier concentrations for Hy- and DMHy-grown material are compared, and little difference is found between the two sources.