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Review
. 2024 Nov 14;10(22):e40322.
doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e40322. eCollection 2024 Nov 30.

Indium aluminum nitride: A review on growth, properties, and applications in photovoltaic solar cells

Juan David Cañón-Bermúdez  1   2 , Luis Fernando Mulcué-Nieto  1   3
Affiliations
Review

Indium aluminum nitride: A review on growth, properties, and applications in photovoltaic solar cells

Juan David Cañón-Bermúdez et al. Heliyon. .

Abstract

InAlN semiconductor alloy is a promising option for the fabrication of optoelectronic devices, such as high efficiency solar cells, due to its wide variable bandgap, from 0.64 eV to 6.2 eV. Traditionally, the production of high quality InAlN has been achieved by techniques such as MBE (Molecular Beam Epitaxy) and MOCVD (Chemical Vapor Deposition), which are complex and require high energy consumption. In contrast, sputtering is presented as a simpler, cheaper, and more industrially scalable technique, allowing the production of InAlN thin films with good structural quality. This study investigates the physical properties of InAlN layers to evaluate their potential in photovoltaic applications. Recent advances and challenges in the use of InAlN as an absorber layer in solar cells are discussed. In addition, critical parameters of the sputtering process, including target power, working pressure, gas flow ratio, substrate temperature, source type and number of cathodes and their influence on material properties are explored. These conditions are discussed along with their impact on the quality of InAlN thin films to enhance their application in photovoltaics and other emerging technology areas.

Keywords: Electrical properties; InxAl1-xN; Magnetron sputtering; Optical properties; Solar cells; Structural properties.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The structure and scope of the document.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Experimental bandgap values of the InxAl1-xN ternary semiconductor as a function of InN mole fraction (x), reported in different investigations (triangle: by monocathode sputtering; circle: by co-sputtering; square: by MBE molecular beam epitaxy; + and x: by Metal-Organic Vapor Phase Epitaxy - MOVPE) [1,9,12,23,24,[24], [24], [25], [26],29,30].
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Schematic representation of the Burstein-Moss shift in InxAl1-xN films. Redrawn from reference [32].
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Absorption profiles of photovoltaic semiconductors. Data obtained from [42,43].
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
a) Dependence of electrical resistivity on the molar fraction of InN. b) Dependence of electrical resistivity as a function of substrate type. [36,[46], [47], [48], [49]].
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
Carrier concentration dependence as a function of: a) the molar fraction of InN, and b) the type of substrate [2,19,25,26,36,46,47,[53], [54], [55]].
Fig. 7
Fig. 7
Wurtzite structure of InxAl1-xN.
Fig. 8
Fig. 8
Dependence of the lattice parameter c of InxAl1-xN on composition [3,48,53,68].
Fig. 9
Fig. 9
Root Mean Square (RMS) roughness as a function of InN mole fraction [20,47,48,53,71,72].
Fig. 10
Fig. 10
Lattice parameter grading strategy for optimizing surface and structural quality of InAlN in photovoltaic applications.
Fig. 11
Fig. 11
Monocathode sputtering target Configurations: Alloyed, mosaic and partially coated.
Fig. 12
Fig. 12
Variation of InN molar fraction in InxAl1-xN layers as a function of power applied to the aluminum target.
Fig. 13
Fig. 13
Influence of Indium target Power on the Coloration of InxAl1-xN Films.
Fig. 14
Fig. 14
Influence of Ar:N2 Gas Flow Ratio on the Optical Band Gap and Crystallite Size of InxAl1-xN Films. Data obtained from Ref. [4].
Fig. 15
Fig. 15
General structure of InAlN-based solar cell prototypes with variations in contact materials.
Fig. 16
Fig. 16
Efficiencies obtained in InAlN solar cell prototypes [10,74,85,86].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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