Polymeric infrared antireflection coating for silicon substrates (Conference Presentation)

High refractive index dielectric (HRID) nanoparticles are a clear alternative to metals in nanophotonic applications due to their low losses and directional scattering properties. It has been demonstrated that HRID dimers are more efficient scattering units than single nanoparticles in redirecting the incident radiation towards the forward direction. This effect was recently reported and is known as the “near zero-backward” scattering condition, attained when nanoparticles forming dimers strongly interact with each other. Here, we analyzed the electromagnetic response of HRID isolated nanoparticles and aggregates when deposited on monolayer and graded-index multilayer dielectric substrates. In particular, we studied the fraction of radiation that is scattered towards a substrate with known optical properties when the nanoparticles are located on its surface. We demonstrated that HRID dimers can increase the radiation emitted towards the substrate compared to that of isolated nanoparticles. However, this effect was only present for low values of the substrate refractive index. With the aim of observing the same effect for silicon substrates, we show that it is necessary to use a multilayer antireflection coating. We conclude that dimers of HRID nanoparticles on a graded-index multilayer substrate can increase the radiation scattered into a silicon photovoltaic wafer. The results in this work can be applied to the design of novel solar cells.

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Silver nanodiscs for light scattering in thin epitaxial silicon solar cells: influence of the disc radius

MRS Proceedings ◽

10.1557/opl.2012.527 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 1391 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

O. El Daif ◽

L. Tong ◽

B. Figeys ◽

S. Jain ◽

V. D. Miljkovic ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Solar Cells ◽

Low Cost ◽

Front Surface ◽

Antireflection Coating ◽

Silicon Solar Cells ◽

Silicon Substrates ◽

Epitaxial Silicon ◽

Loss Mechanism ◽

Absorption Increase ◽

Through Hole

ABSTRACTThe effect of silver nanoparticles showing localised plasmonic resonances on the efficiency of thin film silicon solar cells is studied. Silver (Ag) nanodiscs were deposited on the surface of silicon cells grown on highly doped silicon substrates, through hole-mask colloidal lithography, which is a low-cost and bottom-up technique. The cells have no back reflector in order to exclusively study the effect of the front surface on their properties. Cells with nanoparticles were compared with both bare silicon cells and cells with an antireflection coating. We optically observe a resonance showing an absorption increase controllable by the disc radius. We also see an increase in efficiency with respect to bare cells, but we see a decrease in efficiency with respect to cells with an antireflection coating due to losses at wavelengths below the plasmon resonance. As the material properties are not notably affected by the particles deposition, the loss mechanism is an important absorption in the nanoparticles. We confirm this by numerical simulations.

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Electron Energy Analysis of Germanium and Silica Layers on Silicon Substrates

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100114104 ◽

1975 ◽

Vol 33 ◽

pp. 96-97

Author(s):

R. W. Ditchfield ◽

A. G. Cullis

Keyword(s):

Epitaxial Growth ◽

Electron Energy ◽

Silicon Substrates ◽

Secondary Phases ◽

Si Substrates ◽

Transmission Electron ◽

Layer Structures ◽

Si Films ◽

Electron Energy Loss ◽

Growth Centres

An energy analyzing transmission electron microscope of the Möllenstedt type was used to measure the electron energy loss spectra given by various layer structures to a spatial resolution of 100Å. The technique is an important, method of microanalysis and has been used to identify secondary phases in alloys and impurity particles incorporated into epitaxial Si films.Layers Formed by the Epitaxial Growth of Ge on Si Substrates Following studies of the epitaxial growth of Ge on (111) Si substrates by vacuum evaporation, it was important to investigate the possible mixing of these two elements in the grown layers. These layers consisted of separate growth centres which were often triangular and oriented in the same sense, as shown in Fig. 1.

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Characterization of Y-Ba-Cu-O films grown on silicon substrates by sequential evaporation

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100106399 ◽

1988 ◽

Vol 46 ◽

pp. 866-867

Author(s):

E. L. Hall ◽

A. Mogro-Campero ◽

L. G. Turner ◽

N. Lewis

Keyword(s):

Thin Film ◽

Thin Film Deposition ◽

Superconducting Films ◽

Electron Beam Evaporation ◽

Film Deposition ◽

Silicon Substrates ◽

Superconducting Properties ◽

Sequential Electron ◽

Thin Superconducting Films

There is great interest in the growth of thin superconducting films of YBa2Cu3Ox on silicon, since this is a necessary first step in the use of this superconductor in a variety of possible electronic applications including interconnects and hybrid semiconductor/superconductor devices. However, initial experiments in this area showed that drastic interdiffusion of Si into the superconductor occurred during annealing if the Y-Ba-Cu-O was deposited direcdy on Si or SiO2, and this interdiffusion destroyed the superconducting properties. This paper describes the results of the use of a zirconia buffer layer as a diffusion barrier in the growth of thin YBa2Cu3Ox films on Si. A more complete description of the growth and characterization of these films will be published elsewhere.Thin film deposition was carried out by sequential electron beam evaporation in vacuum onto clean or oxidized single crystal Si wafers. The first layer evaporated was 0.4 μm of zirconia.

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Formation of defects in implanted hipox-structures

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100131668 ◽

1992 ◽

Vol 50 (2) ◽

pp. 1406-1407

Author(s):

Peter Pegler ◽

N. David Theodore ◽

Ming Pan

Keyword(s):

High Pressure ◽

Cross Section ◽

Semiconductor Devices ◽

Silicon Substrates ◽

Processing Conditions ◽

Pressure Oxidation ◽

Deep Trench ◽

Local Oxidation ◽

Trench Isolation ◽

And Behavior

High-pressure oxidation of silicon (HIPOX) is one of various techniques used for electrical-isolation of semiconductor-devices on silicon substrates. Other techniques have included local-oxidation of silicon (LOCOS), poly-buffered LOCOS, deep-trench isolation and separation of silicon by implanted oxygen (SIMOX). Reliable use of HIPOX for device-isolation requires an understanding of the behavior of the materials and structures being used and their interactions under different processing conditions. The effect of HIPOX-related stresses in the structures is of interest because structuraldefects, if formed, could electrically degrade devices.This investigation was performed to study the origin and behavior of defects in recessed HIPOX (RHIPOX) structures. The structures were exposed to a boron implant. Samples consisted of (i) RHlPOX'ed strip exposed to a boron implant, (ii) recessed strip prior to HIPOX, but exposed to a boron implant, (iii) test-pad prior to HIPOX, (iv) HIPOX'ed region away from R-HIPOX edge. Cross-section TEM specimens were prepared in the <110> substrate-geometry.

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Effects of substrate quality and annealing on defect structures at GaAs/Si interfaces

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100126494 ◽

1987 ◽

Vol 45 ◽

pp. 340-341

Author(s):

H. L. Tsai ◽

J. W. Lee

Keyword(s):

Growth Process ◽

Molecular Beam ◽

Substrate Surface ◽

Lattice Misfit ◽

Device Fabrication ◽

Silicon Substrates ◽

Defect Structures ◽

Gaas Film ◽

Substrate Quality ◽

Gaas On Si

Growth of GaAs on Si using epitaxial techniques has been receiving considerable attention for its potential application in device fabrication. However, because of the 4% lattice misfit between GaAs and Si, defect generation at the GaAs/Si interface and its propagation to the top portion of the GaAs film occur during the growth process. The performance of a device fabricated in the GaAs-on-Si film can be degraded because of the presence of these defects. This paper describes a HREM study of the effects of both the substrate surface quality and postannealing on the defect propagation and elimination.The silicon substrates used for this work were 3-4 degrees off [100] orientation. GaAs was grown on the silicon substrate by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE).

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Roughness measurements of nonlinear optical polymer films by scanning tunneling microscopy

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100152082 ◽

1989 ◽

Vol 47 ◽

pp. 22-23

Author(s):

I. H. Musselman ◽

R.-T. Chen ◽

P. E. Russell

Keyword(s):

Surface Roughness ◽

Scanning Tunneling Microscopy ◽

Nonlinear Optical ◽

Polymer Surface ◽

Light Extinction ◽

Scanning Tunneling ◽

Silicon Substrates ◽

Tunneling Microscopy ◽

Optical Polymer ◽

Total Light

Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) has been used to characterize the surface roughness of nonlinear optical (NLO) polymers. A review of STM of polymer surfaces is included in this volume. The NLO polymers are instrumental in the development of electrooptical waveguide devices, the most fundamental of which is the modulator. The most common modulator design is the Mach Zehnder interferometer, in which the input light is split into two legs and then recombined into a common output within the two dimensional waveguide. A π phase retardation, resulting in total light extinction at the output of the interferometer, can be achieved by changing the refractive index of one leg with respect to the other using the electrooptic effect. For best device performance, it is essential that the NLO polymer exhibit minimal surface roughness in order to reduce light scattering. Scanning tunneling microscopy, with its high lateral and vertical resolution, is capable of quantifying the NLO polymer surface roughness induced by processing. Results are presented below in which STM was used to measure the surface roughness of films produced by spin-coating NLO-active polymers onto silicon substrates.

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TEM characterization of Au/Polysilicon interactions

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100176381 ◽

1990 ◽

Vol 48 (4) ◽

pp. 650-651

Author(s):

N. David Theodore ◽

Leslie H. Allen ◽

C. Barry Carter ◽

James W. Mayer

Keyword(s):

Solid Phase ◽

Single Crystal Silicon ◽

Chemical Vapor ◽

Electrical Contacts ◽

Silicon Substrates ◽

Crystal Silicon ◽

Transmission Electron ◽

Polysilicon Films ◽

The Stability

Metal/polysilicon investigations contribute to an understanding of issues relevant to the stability of electrical contacts in semiconductor devices. These investigations also contribute to an understanding of Si lateral solid-phase epitactic growth. Metals such as Au, Al and Ag form eutectics with Si. reactions in these metal/polysilicon systems lead to the formation of large-grain silicon. Of these systems, the Al/polysilicon system has been most extensively studied. In this study, the behavior upon thermal annealing of Au/polysilicon bilayers is investigated using cross-section transmission electron microscopy (XTEM). The unique feature of this system is that silicon grain-growth occurs at particularly low temperatures ∽300°C).Gold/polysilicon bilayers were fabricated on thermally oxidized single-crystal silicon substrates. Lowpressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) at 620°C was used to obtain 100 to 400 nm polysilicon films. The surface of the polysilicon was cleaned with a buffered hydrofluoric acid solution. Gold was then thermally evaporated onto the samples.

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