Biaxial texturing of inorganic photovoltaic thin films using low energy ion beam irradiation during growth

We describe our efforts to control the grain boundary alignment in polycrystalline thin films of silicon by using a biaxially textured template layer of CaF{sub 2} for photovoltaic device applications. We have chosen CaF{sub 2} as a candidate material due to its close lattice match with silicon and its suitability as an ion beam assisted deposition (mAD) material. We show that the CaF{sub 2} aligns biaxially at a thickness of {approx}10 nm and, with the addition of an epitaxial CaF{sub 2} layer, has an in-plane texture of {approx}15{sup o}. Deposition of a subsequent layer of Si aligns on the template layer with an in-plane texture of 10.8{sup o}. The additional improvement of in-plane texture is similar to the behavior observed in more fully characterized IBAD materials systems. A germanium buffer layer is used to assist in the epitaxial deposition of Si on CaF{sub 2} template layers and single crystal substrates. These experiments confirm that an mAD template can be used to biaxially orient polycrystalline Si.