Type II heterojunction tunnel diodes based on GaAs for multi-junction solar cells: Fabrication, characterization and simulation

Kevin Louarn (1) , Chantal Fontaine (1) , Alexandre Arnoult (2) , Dimitri Hapiuk (3) , Christophe Licitra (3) , Thierry Taliercio (4, 5) , Yann Claveau (6) , François Olivié (7) , Nicolas Cavassilas (6) , François Piquemal (8) , Alexandre Bounouh (9) , Guilhem Almuneau (1)

1 LAAS-PHOTO - Équipe Photonique
2 LAAS-TEAM - Service Techniques et Équipements Appliqués à la Microélectronique
3 CEA-LETI - Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives - Laboratoire d'Electronique et de Technologie de l'Information
4 IES - Institut d’Electronique et des Systèmes
5 NANOMIR - Composants à Nanostructure pour le moyen infrarouge
6 IM2NP - Institut des Matériaux, de Microélectronique et des Nanosciences de Provence
7 LAAS-MICA - Équipe MICrosystèmes d'Analyse
8 LNE - Laboratoire National de Métrologie et d'Essais [Trappes]
9 LCAE - Laboratoire Capteurs et Architectures Electroniques

In this work, Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) grown tunnel junctions (TJs) based on GaAs(Sb)(In) materials are experimentally and numerically studied. From simple GaAs TJs grown with various n-doping levels, we develop a semi-classical interband tunneling model able to quantify the magnitude of the tunneling current density, which shows that direct interband tunneling is the predominant tunneling mechanism in GaAs tunnel junctions instead of trap-assisted-tunneling mechanisms. Numerical simulations based on non equilibrium perturbation theory through Non Equilibrium Green's Functions (NEGF) and a multi-band kp hamiltonian that includes both gamma and L valleys were performed by the IM2NP (Marseille) and confirmed this result. In order to further improve the performance of the TJs, we are fabricating a type II tunnel heterojunction based on GaAsSb and InGaAs materials.

Keywords: direct interband tunneling; tunneling current density; semiclassical interband tunneling; numerical simulations; GaAs tunnel junctions; MBE; n-doping levels; molecular beam epitaxy; multijunction solar cells; type II heterojunction tunnel diodes; tunnel diodes; solar cells; InGaAs; nonequilibrium perturbation; nonequilibrium Green's functions; gallium arsenide; k.p calculations; GaAsSb; InGaAs materials; GaAsSb materials; multiband kp Hamiltonian; indium compounds; current density; numerical analysis; semiconductor doping; molecular beam epitaxial growth; Green's function methods; III-V semiconductors; semiconductor heterojunctions

Domains: Engineering Sciences [physics]; Micro and nanotechnologies/Microelectronics; Physics [physics]; Condensed Matter [cond-mat]; Materials Science [cond-mat.mtrl-sci]

Kevin Louarn, Chantal Fontaine, Alexandre Arnoult, Dimitri Hapiuk, Christophe Licitra, et al.. Type II heterojunction tunnel diodes based on GaAs for multi-junction solar cells: Fabrication, characterization and simulation. 2016 IEEE Nanotechnology Materials and Devices Conference (NMDC), Oct 2016, Toulouse, France. pp.7777108, ⟨10.1109/NMDC.2016.7777108⟩. ⟨hal-01436488⟩