1
|
Matsuzaki K, Harada K, Kumagai Y, Koshiya S, Kimoto K, Ueda S, Sasase M, Maeda A, Susaki T, Kitano M, Oba F, Hosono H. High-Mobility p-Type and n-Type Copper Nitride Semiconductors by Direct Nitriding Synthesis and In Silico Doping Design. Adv Mater 2018; 30:e1801968. [PMID: 29920799 DOI: 10.1002/adma.201801968] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/28/2018] [Revised: 05/04/2018] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
Thin-film photovoltaics (PV) have emerged as a technology that can meet the growing demands for efficient and low-cost large-scale cells. However, the photoabsorbers currently in use contain expensive or toxic elements, and the difficulty in bipolar doping, particularly in a device structure, requires elaborate optimization of the heterostructures for improving the efficiency. This study shows that bipolar doping with high hole and electron mobilities in copper nitride (Cu3 N), composed solely of earth-abundant and environmentally benign elements, is readily available through a novel gaseous direct nitriding reaction applicable to uniform and large-area deposition. A high-quality undoped Cu3 N film is essentially an n-type semiconductor, while p-type conductivity is realized by interstitial fluorine doping, as predicted using density functional theory calculations and directly proven by atomically resolved imaging. The synthetic methodology for high-quality p-type and n-type films paves the way for the application of Cu3 N as an alternative absorber in thin-film PV.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Kosuke Matsuzaki
- Materials Research Center for Element Strategy, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 4259 Nagatsuta-cho, Midori-ku, Yokohama, 226-8503, Japan
| | - Kou Harada
- Laboratory for Materials and Structures, Institute of Innovative Research, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 4259 Nagatsuta-cho, Midori-ku, Yokohama, 226-8503, Japan
| | - Yu Kumagai
- Materials Research Center for Element Strategy, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 4259 Nagatsuta-cho, Midori-ku, Yokohama, 226-8503, Japan
| | - Shogo Koshiya
- Electron Microscopy Group, Research Center for Advanced Measurement and Characterization, National Institute for Materials Science, 1-1 Namiki, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-0044, Japan
| | - Koji Kimoto
- Electron Microscopy Group, Research Center for Advanced Measurement and Characterization, National Institute for Materials Science, 1-1 Namiki, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-0044, Japan
| | - Shigenori Ueda
- Synchrotron X-ray Station at SPring-8, National Institute for Materials Science, 1-1-1 Kouto, Sayo-cho, Sayo-gun, Hyogo, 679-5148, Japan
- Research Center for Advanced Measurement and Characterization, National Institute for Materials Science, 1-2-1 Sengen, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-0047, Japan
| | - Masato Sasase
- Materials Research Center for Element Strategy, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 4259 Nagatsuta-cho, Midori-ku, Yokohama, 226-8503, Japan
| | - Akihiro Maeda
- Laboratory for Materials and Structures, Institute of Innovative Research, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 4259 Nagatsuta-cho, Midori-ku, Yokohama, 226-8503, Japan
| | - Tomofumi Susaki
- Materials Research Center for Element Strategy, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 4259 Nagatsuta-cho, Midori-ku, Yokohama, 226-8503, Japan
- Laboratory for Materials and Structures, Institute of Innovative Research, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 4259 Nagatsuta-cho, Midori-ku, Yokohama, 226-8503, Japan
| | - Masaaki Kitano
- Materials Research Center for Element Strategy, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 4259 Nagatsuta-cho, Midori-ku, Yokohama, 226-8503, Japan
| | - Fumiyasu Oba
- Materials Research Center for Element Strategy, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 4259 Nagatsuta-cho, Midori-ku, Yokohama, 226-8503, Japan
- Laboratory for Materials and Structures, Institute of Innovative Research, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 4259 Nagatsuta-cho, Midori-ku, Yokohama, 226-8503, Japan
- Center for Materials Research by Information Integration, Research and Services Division of Materials Data and Integrated System, National Institute for Materials Science, 1-2-1 Sengen, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-0047, Japan
| | - Hideo Hosono
- Materials Research Center for Element Strategy, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 4259 Nagatsuta-cho, Midori-ku, Yokohama, 226-8503, Japan
- Laboratory for Materials and Structures, Institute of Innovative Research, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 4259 Nagatsuta-cho, Midori-ku, Yokohama, 226-8503, Japan
| |
Collapse
|