Search

Raman spectroscopy is uniquely sensitive to crucial material properties like stress and composition, but is inherently diffraction-limited, impeding its application potential in nanostructured devices. Under correct polarization conditions, the Raman response from a periodic array of fins is dramatically enhanced inside the semiconductor material, re-enabling fast and non-destructive optical characterization of deep-subwavelength semiconductor patterns. In this paper, it is shown that the effect is not limited to the material system where it was first observed, and results of nanofocused Raman spectroscopy in a variety of semiconductor materials are presented. The authors illustrate and discuss how the universality of the enhancement creates a unique potential for non-invasive and rapid stress and composition measurements at the nanoscale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

V-defects can be very detrimental to the functionality of GaN based light emitting diodes (LEDs) and high power transistors grown on 200 mm Si (111) substrates. This work focuses on reducing these detrimental defects in the GaN/AlGaN/AlN stacks grown in a Veeco Turbodisc Maxbright MOCVD system. The origins of V-defects in GaN/AlGaN/AlN material were studied by cross-sectional transmission electron microscope (TEM) and high angle annular dark field scanning transmission electron microscopy (HAADF-STEM). It was found that V-defects were associated with inversion domain boundary (IDB) like defects, which started from the interface between the AlN nucleation layers and the Si (111) substrates. These IDB-like defects were terminated by generating V-defects in the upper layers. Encouraging the 2-D GaN growth mode helped to close these V-defects in the GaN layers, but relaxed the built-in compressive stress faster and resulted in excessive wafer bow. Optimizing the V/III ratio during the AlN nucleation step improved AlN crystal quality and surface morphology, and close V-defects in GaN without degrading wafers stress condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Driven by the relatively high cost of silver (Ag), interest has grown in the photovoltaic (PV) industry to substitute conventional screen printed (SP) Ag front contacts with copper (Cu) plated contacts. The approach chosen here applies selective laser ablation of the front anti-reflection coating (ARC), then forming self-aligned nickel silicides (NiSix) contacts, and thickening the lines by Cu plating to achieve the desired line conductivity. A successful implementation of this scheme requires annealing to form NiSix with low contact resistance. However, it has been shown that industrial shallow emitters can be damaged severely upon conventional annealing of nickel. In this paper, we show that by using large area excimer laser annealing (ELA), NiSix contacts can be formed on industrial shallow emitters without the associated junction degradation. On the basis of sheet resistance, transmission electron microscopy, and lifetime measurements, we demonstrate that NiSix formation by ELA can be achieved in narrow contact openings without damaging the passivation and reflectance properties of the neighboring ARC. In addition, the thresholds for NiSix formation for different Ni thicknesses are quantified by rigorous finite element simulations and compared with experimental data. Finally, high efficiency passivated emitter and rear cell type solar cells featuring a shallow 85 Ω/sq emitter have been processed on large area CZ-Si using laser ablation of the ARC and subsequent NiSix formation by ELA. These cells show an average efficiency gain of 0.4%abs compared with cells processed with reference SP contacts. In this work, the best performing cell with the ELA process reached 20.0% energy conversion efficiency. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A combined deep-level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) and electron spin resonance (ESR) study is performed to identify the electrically active defects at the AlN/Si (111) interface. It is shown that the density of deep-level states not only depends on the thermal budget of the epitaxial deposition but also on the strain built up during growth and upon cooling to room temperature (RT). At the same time, diffusion of Si into the 200 nm thick AlN layer produces a thin crystalline Si3N4 interfacial layer, identified by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). This gives rise to so-called dangling bond Pb centres at the Si3N4/Si (111) interface. In addition, a strong evolution of the electrically active defect clusters in the silicon substrate close to the interface has been observed both in DLTS and ESR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]