title: Investigation of electrically active defects in InGaAs quantum wire intermediate-band solar cells using deep-level transient spectroscopy technique.
abstract: InGaAs quantum wire (QWr) intermediate-band solar cell-based nanostructures grown by molecular beam epitaxy are studied. The electrical and interface properties of these solar cell devices, as determined by current-voltage (I-V) and capacitance-voltage (C-V) techniques, were found to change with temperature over a wide range of 20-340 K. The electron and hole traps present in these devices have been investigated using deep-level transient spectroscopy (DLTS). The DLTS results showed that the traps detected in the QWr-doped devices are directly or indirectly related to the insertion of the Si δ-layer used to dope the wires. In addition, in the QWr-doped devices, the decrease of the solar conversion efficiencies at low temperatures and the associated decrease of the integrated external quantum efficiency through InGaAs could be attributed to detected traps E1QWR_D, E2QWR_D, and E3QWR_Dwith activation energies of 0.0037, 0.0053, and 0.041 eV, respectively.
authors.affiliation: School of Physics and Astronomy, Nottingham Nanotechnology and Nanoscience Center, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK. Department of Physics, College of Science, Box 36, Sultan Qaboos University, Al Khoud 123, Oman.
authors.forename: Noor Alhuda
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Al Saqri
authors.forename: Jorlandio F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Felix
authors.forename: Mohsin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Aziz
authors.forename: Vasyl P
authors.initials: VP
authors.lastname: Kunets
authors.forename: Dler
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Jameel
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Taylor
authors.forename: Mohamed
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Henini
authors.forename: Mahmmoud S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Abd El-Sadek
authors.forename: Colin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Furrow
authors.forename: Morgan E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Ware
authors.forename: Mourad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Benamara
authors.forename: Mansour
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mortazavi
authors.forename: Gregory
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Salamo