Mechanism of Zn and Si diffusion from a highly doped tunnel junction for InGaP/GaAs tandem solar cells

Diffusion of impurities (Zn and Si) from a tunnel junction during epitaxial growth and the effects of impurity diffusion on InGaP/GaAs tandem cell properties have been investigated. Zn diffusion from the tunnel junction has been found to deteriorate the effect of the back-surface field layer on minority carrier reflectance in the InGaP top cell and degrade the quantum efficiency of the top cell. Furthermore, Zn diffusion has been found to be enhanced around the threading dislocations from a GaAs substrate and creates shunt paths only in the top cell region. Si diffusion, which degrades the quantum efficiency of the GaAs bottom cell, has also been observed when a different substrate with high etch pit density was used. Such anomalous diffusion of Zn has been found to be suppressed by using a double-hetero structure InGaP tunnel junction sandwiched by AlInP layers. It has been found that the Zn diffusion occurs as a layer highly doped with Si being formed nearby and Zn diffuses in the opposite direction from the Si-doped layer. The Zn diffusion is thought to be caused by group III self-diffusion which originates in the highly doped n-type layer. The direction of Zn diffusion is thought to be due to Coulombic repulsion between the substitutional Zn on the Ga site and the substitutional Si on the As site. The large energies of the formation and migration of group III vacancies in the AlInP barrier layers and InGaP tunnel junction layers are thought to suppress Zn diffusion from the tunnel junction. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(99)04203-6].