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Donor and acceptor levels in impurity‐doped semiconducting BaSi 2 thin films for solar‐cell application
Author(s) -
Ajmal Khan M.,
Suemasu T.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
physica status solidi (a)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.532
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1862-6319
pISSN - 1862-6300
DOI - 10.1002/pssa.201700019
Subject(s) - impurity , acceptor , materials science , doping , molecular beam epitaxy , homojunction , van der pauw method , analytical chemistry (journal) , heterojunction , hall effect , epitaxy , electrical resistivity and conductivity , optoelectronics , chemistry , nanotechnology , condensed matter physics , physics , organic chemistry , layer (electronics) , quantum mechanics , chromatography
Identification of donor and acceptor energy levels in BaSi 2 due to the suitable impurity injection of different types is very essential for the design and development of heterojunction or homojunction solar cells. In this article, donor and acceptor energy levels due to the impurity Sb‐, In‐, Ga‐, Cu‐, Al‐, Ag‐, P‐, and B‐doped BaSi 2 films grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) were investigated. It was found that impurity Sb‐, Ga‐, Cu‐, and P‐doped BaSi 2 exhibited n‐type conductivity, while impurity In‐ Al‐, Ag‐, and B‐doped BaSi 2 exhibited p‐type conductivity, using the Van der Pauw method at room temperature (RT). The temperature dependence of electron or hole concentrations indicated that the acceptor energy levels in impurity B‐, In‐, Ag‐, and Al‐doped BaSi 2 are 23, 86, 126, and 140 meV, respectively, and the donor energy levels in impurity Cu‐, Sb‐, P‐, and Ga‐doped BaSi 2 are 35, 47, 80, and 120 meV, respectively. The shallow acceptor level of 23 meV in p‐type BaSi 2 due to B impurity atoms and two novel donor levels of 47 and 35 meV, respectively, due to Sb and Cu impurity atoms in n‐type BaSi 2 were successfully identified for photovoltaic applications.