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Lattice mismatch alleviation in p-CdTe/n-Si heterostructure by surface engineering on Si substrate

The study used magnetron sputtering to investigate the growth of cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin films on surface treated n-type silicon (n-Si) substrates. The n-Si substrates were textured using potassium hydroxide (KOH) before the sputter deposition of CdTe. This was followed by cadmium chloride tre...

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Autores principales: Isah, Mustapha, Doroody, Camellia, Rahman, Kazi Sajedur, Harif, Muhammad Najib, Kiong, Tiong Sieh, Zuhdi, Ahmad Wafi Mahmood
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Elsevier 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10651503/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/38027560
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e21536
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author Isah, Mustapha
Doroody, Camellia
Rahman, Kazi Sajedur
Harif, Muhammad Najib
Kiong, Tiong Sieh
Zuhdi, Ahmad Wafi Mahmood
author_facet Isah, Mustapha
Doroody, Camellia
Rahman, Kazi Sajedur
Harif, Muhammad Najib
Kiong, Tiong Sieh
Zuhdi, Ahmad Wafi Mahmood
author_sort Isah, Mustapha
collection PubMed
description The study used magnetron sputtering to investigate the growth of cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin films on surface treated n-type silicon (n-Si) substrates. The n-Si substrates were textured using potassium hydroxide (KOH) before the sputter deposition of CdTe. This was followed by cadmium chloride treatment to reduce the strain at the interface of CdTe and Si, which is caused by the incompatible lattice and thermal expansion mismatch (CTE). X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis showed that the lowest FWHM and dislocation densities were obtained for CdCl(2)/CdTe/txt-nSi, which aligns with the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) results. In the SEM images, the interface bonding between the CdTe and Si surfaces was visible in the cross-sections, and the top-view images revealed sputtered CdTe thin films conforming to the patterns of pyramidal textured Si as an engineered surface to capture more light to maximize absorption in the CdTe/Si tandem design. The Energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) results showed that all the CdTe deposited on textured n-Si exhibited more Te atoms than Cd atoms, irrespective of the CdCl(2) treatment. The presented results suggest that the texturization and CdCl(2) treatment improved the morphology and grain boundary passivation of the sputtered CdTe. The adhesiveness of CdTe on the n-Si substrate was also significantly enhanced. Our findings further demonstrate that proper surface treatment of the Si substrate can greatly improve the quality of CdTe grown on Si by reducing the strain that occurs during the growth process. This study demonstrates a valuable method for enhancing the integration of CdTe with Si for two-junction tandem solar cell applications.
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spelling pubmed-106515032023-10-31 Lattice mismatch alleviation in p-CdTe/n-Si heterostructure by surface engineering on Si substrate Isah, Mustapha Doroody, Camellia Rahman, Kazi Sajedur Harif, Muhammad Najib Kiong, Tiong Sieh Zuhdi, Ahmad Wafi Mahmood Heliyon Research Article The study used magnetron sputtering to investigate the growth of cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin films on surface treated n-type silicon (n-Si) substrates. The n-Si substrates were textured using potassium hydroxide (KOH) before the sputter deposition of CdTe. This was followed by cadmium chloride treatment to reduce the strain at the interface of CdTe and Si, which is caused by the incompatible lattice and thermal expansion mismatch (CTE). X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis showed that the lowest FWHM and dislocation densities were obtained for CdCl(2)/CdTe/txt-nSi, which aligns with the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) results. In the SEM images, the interface bonding between the CdTe and Si surfaces was visible in the cross-sections, and the top-view images revealed sputtered CdTe thin films conforming to the patterns of pyramidal textured Si as an engineered surface to capture more light to maximize absorption in the CdTe/Si tandem design. The Energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) results showed that all the CdTe deposited on textured n-Si exhibited more Te atoms than Cd atoms, irrespective of the CdCl(2) treatment. The presented results suggest that the texturization and CdCl(2) treatment improved the morphology and grain boundary passivation of the sputtered CdTe. The adhesiveness of CdTe on the n-Si substrate was also significantly enhanced. Our findings further demonstrate that proper surface treatment of the Si substrate can greatly improve the quality of CdTe grown on Si by reducing the strain that occurs during the growth process. This study demonstrates a valuable method for enhancing the integration of CdTe with Si for two-junction tandem solar cell applications. Elsevier 2023-10-31 /pmc/articles/PMC10651503/ /pubmed/38027560 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e21536 Text en © 2023 The Authors https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Research Article
Isah, Mustapha
Doroody, Camellia
Rahman, Kazi Sajedur
Harif, Muhammad Najib
Kiong, Tiong Sieh
Zuhdi, Ahmad Wafi Mahmood
Lattice mismatch alleviation in p-CdTe/n-Si heterostructure by surface engineering on Si substrate
title Lattice mismatch alleviation in p-CdTe/n-Si heterostructure by surface engineering on Si substrate
title_full Lattice mismatch alleviation in p-CdTe/n-Si heterostructure by surface engineering on Si substrate
title_fullStr Lattice mismatch alleviation in p-CdTe/n-Si heterostructure by surface engineering on Si substrate
title_full_unstemmed Lattice mismatch alleviation in p-CdTe/n-Si heterostructure by surface engineering on Si substrate
title_short Lattice mismatch alleviation in p-CdTe/n-Si heterostructure by surface engineering on Si substrate
title_sort lattice mismatch alleviation in p-cdte/n-si heterostructure by surface engineering on si substrate
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10651503/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/38027560
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e21536
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