Patent · US Expired

Lattice constant grading in the Al.sub.y Ca.sub.1-y As.sub.1-x Sb.sub.x alloy system

US4246050A · kind A · utility

9Cited by
5References
3Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventor

Key dates

Filing dateJul 23, 1979
Grant dateJan 20, 1981
Priority date
Expiry dateJul 23, 1999

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC Y)Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
  • CPC primaryY10S438/938
  • WIPO fieldSemiconductors
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

Liquid phase epitaxy is employed to grow a lattice matched layer of GaAsSb on GaAs substrates through the compositional intermediary of the III-V alloy system AlGaAsSb which acts as a grading layer. The Al constituent reaches a peak atomic concentration of about 6% within the first 2.5.mu.m of the transition layer, then decreases smoothly to about 1% to obtain a lattice constant of 5.74 A. In the same interval the equilibrium concentration of Sb smoothly increases from 0 to about 9 atomic percent to form a surface on which a GaAsSb layer having the desired energy bandgap of 1.1 ev for one junction of an optimized dual junction photovoltaic device. The liquid phase epitaxy is accomplished with a step cooling procedure whereby dislocation defects are more uniformly distributed over the surface of the growing layer.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.