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  4. Nanoscale Growth Initiation as a Pathway to Improve the Earth-Abundant Absorber Zinc Phosphide
 
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research article

Nanoscale Growth Initiation as a Pathway to Improve the Earth-Abundant Absorber Zinc Phosphide

Steinvall, Simon Escobar  
•
Stutz, Elias Z.
•
Paul, Rajrupa  
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May 23, 2022
Acs Applied Energy Materials

Growth approaches that limit the interface area between layers to nanoscale regions are emerging as a promising pathway to limit the interface defect formation due to mismatching lattice parameters or thermal expansion coefficient. Interfacial defect mitigation is of great interest in photovoltaics as it opens up more material combinations for use in devices. Herein, an overview of the vapor-liquid-solid and selective area epitaxy growth approaches applied to zinc phosphide (Zn3P2), an earth-abundant absorber material, is presented. First, we show how different morphologies, including nanowires, nanopyramids, and thin films, can be achieved by tuning the growth conditions and growth mechanisms. The growth conditions are also shown to greatly impact the defect structure and composition of the grown material, which can vary considerably from the ideal stoichiometry (Zn3P2). Finally, the functional properties are characterized. The direct band gap could accurately be determined at 1.50 +/- 0.1 eV, and through complementary density functional theory calculations, we can identify a range of higher-order band gap transitions observed through valence electron energy loss spectroscopy and cathodoluminescence. Furthermore, we outline the formation of rotated domains inside of the material, which are a potential origin of defect transitions that have been long observed in zinc phosphide but not yet explained. The basic understanding provided reinvigorates the potential use of earth-abundant II-V semiconductors in photovoltaic technology. Moreover, the transferrable nanoscale growth approaches have the potential to be applied to other material systems, as they mitigate the constraints of substrate-material combinations causing interface defects.

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Type
research article
DOI
10.1021/acsaem.1c02484
Web of Science ID

WOS:000832794500002

Author(s)
Steinvall, Simon Escobar  
•
Stutz, Elias Z.
•
Paul, Rajrupa  
•
Zamani, Mahdi  
•
Leran, Jean-Baptiste  
•
Dimitrievska, Mirjana  
•
Morral, Anna Fontcuberta, I  
Date Issued

2022-05-23

Publisher

AMER CHEMICAL SOC

Published in
Acs Applied Energy Materials
Volume

5

Issue

5

Start page

5298

End page

5306

Subjects

Chemistry, Physical

•

Energy & Fuels

•

Materials Science, Multidisciplinary

•

Chemistry

•

Materials Science

•

zinc phosphide

•

earth-abundant

•

absorber

•

nanoscale growth

•

vapor-liquid-solid

•

selective area epitaxy

•

molecular-beam epitaxy

•

nanowire solar-cells

•

single-crystalline

•

zn3p2

•

mechanism

•

heterostructures

•

nanostructures

•

superlattices

•

conductivity

•

absorption

Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
LMSC  
Available on Infoscience
August 15, 2022
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/189998
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