Silicon is the dominant semiconductor in many semiconductor device applications for a variety of reasons, including both performance and cost. III-V materials have improved performance compared to silicon, but currently they are relegated to applications in high-value or niche markets due to the absence of a low-cost, high-quality production technique. Here we present an advance in III-V materials synthesis using hydride vapor phase epitaxy that has the potential to lower III-V semiconductor deposition costs by orders of magnitude while maintaining the requisite optoelectronic material quality that enables III-V-based technologies to outperform Si. We demonstrate the impacts of this advance by addressing the use of III-Vs in terrestrial photovoltaics, a highly cost-constrained market. The emergence of a low-cost III-V deposition technique will enable III-V electronic and opto-electronic devices, with all the benefits that they bring, to permeate throughout modern society.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1809.10754,
title = {Enabling III-V-based optoelectronics with low-cost dynamic hydride vapor phase epitaxy},
author = {John Simon and Kevin L. Schulte and Kelsey Horowitz and Timothy Remo and David L. Young and Aaron J. Ptak},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1809.10754},
year = {2018}
}