effect of ge incorporation on bandgap and photosensitivity of amorphous sige thin films通用电气公司对能带的影响和非晶锗硅薄膜的光敏性.pdfVIP

Materials Sciences and Applications, 2012, 3, 67-71 67 /10.4236/msa.2012.32010 Published Online February 2012 (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/msa) Effect of Ge Incorporation on Bandgap and Photosensitivity of Amorphous SiGe Thin Films 1,2 1,2 1,2 3 3 Gopal G. Pethuraja , Roger E. Welser , Ashok K. Sood , Changwoo Lee , Nicholas J. Alexander , Harry Efstathiadis3 3 4 , Pradeep Haldar , Jennifer L. Harvey 1Magnolia Solar Inc., Cummings Park, Woburn, USA; 2Magnolia Solar Inc., Albany, USA; 3College of Nanoscale Science and Engi- neering (CNSE), Albany, USA; 4New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), Columbia Circle, Al- bany, USA. Email: gpethuraja@ Received December 1st, 2011; revised January 15th, 2012; accepted January 24th, 2012 ABSTRACT We investigated the structural and optical properties of amorphous-SiGe thin films synthesized via a low-cost, high-growth rate deposition method. Films were formed by e-beam evaporation of mixed pellets of Si and Ge. Film composition was varied by changing the weight ratio of Si and Ge pellets mixture. Films were amorphous with a composition uniform. Ge-rich films are in tensile stress, while Si-rich films are in compressive stress. As the Ge fraction increases (from 22 at.% to 94 at.%), the optical bandgap decreases (from 1.7 eV to 0.9 eV) and the photosensitivity of the films extends into IR band of solar spectrum. By changing the weighted ratio of the evaporation source mixture, the bandgap and optical sensitivity of a-SiGe films can be easily tuned. Our studies prove that a-SiGe films are a tunable absorber. This can be used for photo-detector, photovoltaic and mic