Cathodoluminescence Study of Dislocations in Step-Graded InGaP Buffer Layers of Metamorphic Single-Junction InGaAs Solar Cells

Epitaxial growth of lattice-mismatched materials is useful for solar cells, but lattice dislocations must be controlled for best device performance. It has been shown that metamorphic growth enables fabrication of InGaAs p–n junctions with good performances on GaAs substrates due to the insertion of buffer layers. Here, we investigate misfit and threading dislocations inside the step-graded InGaP buffer layers of a single-junction InGaAs solar cell by cathodoluminescence microscopy. Prior to measurement, the device edges were polished at various angles (less than 10° with respect to the substrate surface). By using this technique, cross sections of very thin layers can be directly imaged with a resolution that allows us to observe misfit and threading dislocations. In the present device, the densities of the two types of dark lines depend on the position in the buffer structure. In particular, near the InGaAs base layer, the density of the dark lines extending in the [110] direction is higher than that of the dark lines extending in the [1-10] direction. We believe that this difference in the dark line density is related to the surface morphology.