Nanostructured silicon substrates of nanopore morphology for buffer-layer free nanoheteroepitaxial growth of InP films

Abstract

To reduce the cost of III–V solar cells, a buffer-layer free method of depositing high-quality III–V thin films onto low-cost silicon nanostructured substrates is proposed that is enabled by stress relaxation due to the nanopore morphology of the silicon substrate. As a proof-of-concept test of the proposed method, the nanoheteroepitaxial deposition of high quality InP thin film is examined. By comparing the deposition of InP (under conditions optimized for InP deposition onto InP substrates) onto nanostructured Si(100) substrates with nanopore and nanopillar morphologies, the morphology of nanopores is found to be preferred for the nanoheteroepitaxial deposition of InP films.