Towards defect-free thin films of the earth-abundant absorber zinc phosphide by nanopatterning

Escobar Steinvall, Simon, Stutz, Elias Z., Paul, Rajrupa, Zamani, Mahdi, Dzade, Nelson Y. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7733-9473, Piazza, Valerio, Friedl, Martin, de Mestral, Virginie, Leran, Jean-Baptiste, Zamani, Reza R. and Fontcuberta i Morral, Anna 2021. Towards defect-free thin films of the earth-abundant absorber zinc phosphide by nanopatterning. Nanoscale Advances 3 10.1039/D0NA00841A

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Abstract

Large-scale deployment of thin-film photovoltaics will be facilitated through earth-abundant components. Herein, selective area epitaxy and lateral overgrowth epitaxy are explored for the growth of zinc phosphide (Zn3P2), a promising earth-abundant absorber. The ideal growth conditions are elucidated, and the nucleation of single-crystal nanopyramids that subsequently evolve towards coalesced thin-films is demonstrated. The zinc phosphide pyramids exhibit room temperature bandgap luminescence at 1.53 eV, indicating a high-quality material. The electrical properties of zinc phosphide and the junction with the substrate are assessed by conductive atomic force microscopy on n-type, p-type and intrinsic substrates. The measurements are consistent with the p-type characteristic of zinc phosphide. Overall, this constitutes a new, and transferrable, approach for the controlled and tunable growth of high-quality zinc phosphide, a step forward in the quest for earth-abundant photovoltaics.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Chemistry Advanced Research Computing @ Cardiff (ARCCA)
Additional Information:	This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence
Publisher:	Royal Society of Chemistry
ISSN:	2516-0230
Funders:	EPSRC
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	3 December 2020
Date of Acceptance:	15 November 2020
Last Modified:	07 May 2023 15:12
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/136761

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