Ternary and quaternary antimonide devices for thermophotovoltaic applications

Thermophotovoltaic (TPV) devices have been fabricated using epitaxial ternary and quaternary layers grown on GaSb substrates. GaInSb ternary devices were grown by metalorganic vapor-phase epitaxy (MOVPE) with buffer layers to accommodate the lattice mismatch, and GaInAsSb lattice-matched quaternaries were grown by MOVPE and by liquid-phase epitaxy (LPE). Improved devices are obtained when optical absorption occurs in the p-layer due to the longer minority carrier diffusion length. Thick emitter p/n devices are limited by surface recombination, with highest quantum efficiency and lowest dark current being achieved with epitaxially grown surface passivation layers on lattice-matched MOVPE quaternaries. Thin emitter/thick base n/p devices are very promising, but require improved shallow high-quality n-type ohmic contacts. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.