Some candidate materials for lattice-matched liquid-phase epitaxial growth on silicon

Abstract

The literature has been surveyed to identify semiconductors which could be grown as lattice-matched layers on silicon substrates, with an emphasis on liquid-phase epitaxy (LPE). Applications are discussed for multi-junction solar cells and as window layers on silicon solar cells. The following pseudo-binary solid solutions (alloys) have been investigated: boronIIIV, IIIIVI₂, IIVI, IIVI/IIIV, IIIVV₂ and I IIIVV₂/IIIV. $\text{B}{}_{\mathrm{x}}\text{Ga}{}_{\mathrm{1-x}}\text{P}$. The latter was considered to be the most promising candidate because its major constituent, GaP, has already been grown on silicon by LPE from a suitable solvent (tin) and because only 2.2% of the gallium atoms need to be replaced by boron in order to match the lattice spacing of silicon.