APPLICATIONS OF TECHNOLOGY:
- High performance solar cells
- Electronic and optoelectronic devices, e.g., transistors, photodetectors, lasers
ADVANTAGES:
- Less costly and complex than current methods
- Growth on amorphous substrates
- Applicable to a range of III-V materials
ABSTRACT:
A Berkeley Lab team of researchers led by Ali Javey has developed a technology for direct growth of single crystalline III-V semiconductors onto any substrate, reducing the cost and processing complexity for materials key to photovoltaic and optoelectronic applications.
Berkeley Lab’s Templated Liquid Phase (TLP) crystal growth technology is a synthetic approach for growth of high performance, nano- and micro-scale single crystalline compound semiconductors with user-defined geometries on arbitrary substrates. While InP was used as a model growth system in this work, the TLP crystal growth method is one that, from a thermodynamic and kinetic point of view, is expected to be applicable to other technologically important III-V materials.
Unlike the Berkeley Lab technology, alternative methods require closely lattice-matched epitaxial substrates for growth of high quality single-crystal III-V thin films and patterned microstructures. Approaches including epitaxial growth of thin films on single-crystalline substrates followed by selective layer transfer to a desired substrate, and several types of nanowire growth, have yet to show direct growth of single-crystalline semiconductors with user-defined geometries and dimensions on amorphous substrates. The Berkeley Lab technology encompasses these abilities via pre-patterning the group III element followed by subsequent growth with the group V element introduced via the vapor phase, offering major advantages in terms of compatibility with traditional device processing technology, scalability, and processing cost. Additionally, it provides a direct pathway to three-dimensional integration of electronic materials and devices with appreciable levels of complexity.
DEVELOPMENT STAGE: Proven principle.
STATUS: Issued U. S. Patent # 10,087,547. Available for licensing or collaborative research.
SEE THESE OTHER BERKELEY LAB TECHNOLOGIES IN THIS FIELD:
Ternary Compound Nanocrystals for Photovoltaic Devices, IB-2740
Optofluidic 3D Printing, 2015-028