Capacitance voltage curve simulations for different passivation parameters of dielectric layers on silicon

Surface passivation is a widely used technique to reduce the recombination losses at the semiconductor surface. The passivating layer performance can be mainly characterized by two parameters: The fixed charge density (Q ox) and the interface trap density (D it) which can be extracted from Capacitance-Voltage measurements (CV). In this paper, simulations of High-Frequency Capacitance-Voltage (HF-CV) curves were developed using simulated passivation parameters in order to examine the reliability of measured results. The D it was modelled by two different sets of functions: First, the sum of Gaussian functions representing different dangling bond types and exponential tails for strained bonds. Second, a simpler U-shape model represented by the sum of exponential tails and a constant value function was employed. These simulations were validated using experimental measurements of a reference sample based on silicon dioxide on crystalline silicon (SiO2/c-Si). Additionally, a fitting process of HF-CV curves was proposed using the simple U-shape D it model. A relative error of less than 0.4% was found comparing the average values between the approximated and the experimentally extracted D it's. The constant function of the approximated D it represents an average of the experimentally extracted D it for values around the midgap energy where the recombination efficiency is highest

Single-photon emission from InGaAs quantum dots grown on (111) GaAs

This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and AIP Publishing. This article appeared in Appl. Phys. Lett. 96, 093112 (2010) and may be found at https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3337097.In this letter, we demonstrate that self-organized InGaAs quantum dots (QDs) grown on GaAs (111) substrate using droplet epitaxy have great potential for the generation of entangled photon pairs. The QDs show spectrally sharp luminescence lines and low spatial density. A second order correlation value of g(2)(0)<0.3 proves single-photon emission. By comparing the power dependence of the luminescence from a number of QDs we identify a typical luminescence fingerprint. In polarization dependent microphotoluminescence studies a fine-structure splitting ranging ≤40eV down to the determination limit of our setup (10eV) was observed.DFG, 43659573, SFB 787: Halbleiter - Nanophotonik: Materialien, Modelle, Bauelement

Silicon interface passivation studied by modulated surface photovoltage spectroscopy

We demonstrate that the modulated surface photovoltage spectroscopy (modulated SPS) technique can be applied to investigate interface states in the bandgap, i.e. interface passivation, of crystalline silicon coated with a downshift layer such as hydrogenated aluminum nitride with embedded terbium ions by suppressing straylight with a cut-off filter. Different hydrogen contents influence the surface photovoltage spectra at photon energies below the bandgap of crystalline silicon. Modulated SPS reveals that at higher hydrogen content there is a lower signal and, thus, a lower density of surface defect states. Our experiments show that modulated SPS can become a powerful tool for characterizing defect states at interfaces which cannot be easily studied by other methods

Impact of measured spectrum variation on solar photovoltaic efficiencies worldwide

In photovoltaic power ratings, a single solar spectrum, AM1.5, is the de facto standard for record laboratory efficiencies, commercial module specifications, and performance ratios of solar power plants. More detailed energy analysis that accounts for local spectral irradiance, along with temperature and broadband irradiance, reduces forecast errors to expand the grid utility of solar energy. Here, ground-level measurements of spectral irradiance collected worldwide have been pooled to provide a sampling of geographic, seasonal, and diurnal variation. Applied to nine solar cell types, the resulting divergence in solar cell efficiencies illustrates that a single spectrum is insufficient for comparisons of cells with different spectral responses. Cells with two or more junctions tend to have efficiencies below that under the standard spectrum. Silicon exhibits the least spectral sensitivity: relative weekly site variation ranges from 1% in Lima, Peru to 14% in Edmonton, Canada

Impact of measured spectrum variation on solar photovoltaic efficiencies worldwide

In photovoltaic power ratings, a single solar spectrum, AM1.5, is the de facto standard for record laboratory efficiencies, commercial module specifications, and performance ratios of solar power plants. More detailed energy analysis that accounts for local spectral irradiance, along with temperature and broadband irradiance, reduces forecast errors to expand the grid utility of solar energy. Here, ground-level measurements of spectral irradiance collected worldwide have been pooled to provide a sampling of geographic, seasonal, and diurnal variation. Applied to nine solar cell types, the resulting divergence in solar cell efficiencies illustrates that a single spectrum is insufficient for comparisons of cells with different spectral responses. Cells with two or more junctions tend to have efficiencies below that under the standard spectrum. Silicon exhibits the least spectral sensitivity: relative weekly site variation ranges from 1% in Lima, Peru to 14% in Edmonton, Canada