Understanding Arsenic Incorporation in CdTe with Atom Probe Tomography

John Moseley, Katherine Zaunbrecher, Teresa Barnes, G. Burton, D. Diercks, O. Ogedengbe, P. Jayathilaka, M. Edirisooriya, T. Myers, B. Gorman

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

16 Scopus Citations

Abstract

Overcoming the open circuit voltage deficiency in Cadmium Telluride (CdTe) photovoltaics may be achieved by increasing p-type doping while maintaining or increasing minority carrier lifetimes. Here, routes to higher doping efficiency using arsenic are explored through an atomic scale understanding of dopant incorporation limits and activation in molecular beam epitaxy grown CdTe layers. Atom probe tomography reveals spatial segregation into nanometer scale clusters containing > 60 at% As for samples with arsenic incorporation levels greater than 7–8 × 1017 cm−3. The presence of arsenic clusters was accompanied by crystal quality degradation, particularly the introduction of arsenic-enriched extended defects. Post-growth annealing treatments are shown to increase the size of the As precipitates and the amount of As within the precipitates.

Original languageAmerican English
Pages (from-to)68-75
Number of pages8
JournalSolar Energy Materials and Solar Cells
Volume182
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Aug 2018

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Elsevier B.V.

NREL Publication Number

  • NREL/JA-5K00-71229

Keywords

  • As doping
  • Atom probe tomography
  • CdTe
  • Molecular beam epitaxy
  • Scanning transmission electron microscopy
  • Single crystalline

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