In Situ Smoothing of Facets on Spalled GaAs(100) Substrates during OMVPE Growth of III-V Epilayers, Solar Cells, and Other Devices: The Impact of Surface Impurities/Dopants

One possible pathway toward reducing the cost of III-V solar cells is to remove them from their growth substrate by spalling fracture, and then reuse the substrate for the growth of multiple cells. Here we consider the growth of III-V cells on spalled GaAs(100) substrates, which typically have faceted surfaces after spalling. To facilitate the growth of high-quality cells, these faceted surfaces should be smoothed prior to cell growth. In this study, we show that these surfaces can be smoothed during organometallic vapor-phase epitaxy growth, but the choice of epilayer material and modification of the various surfaces by impurities/dopants greatly impacts whether or not the surface becomes smooth, and how rapidly the smoothing occurs. Representative examples are presented along with a discussion of the underlying growth processes. Although this work was motivated by solar cell growth, the methods are generally applicable to the growth of any III-V device on a nonplanar substrate.