Preparation and characterization of iron disilicide and heterojunction combined with silicon for photodiode and photovoltaic applications

Program: Collaborative Research Program for Alumni (CRA)

Field: Materials Engineering

Principal Investigator: Asst. Prof. Dr. Nathaporn Promros

Sending University: King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang (KMITL)

Japanese Co-Investigator: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tsuyoshi YOSHITAKE

Japanese University: Kyushu University

Year: 2014

Abstract:

According to the promising semiconducting properties, -FeSi2 that was epitaxially grown on Si substrates has received much attention to be employed as NIR photodetectors and photovoltaics. While researches on the formation of -FeSi2 thin films by a variety of preparation techniques have been actively conducted, there have been a few reports on the formation of pn-junctions and their application to photodetector. NC-FeSi2 comprised of crystallites with diameters ranging from 3 to 5 nm is also a novel semiconducting material for the similar application. However, there have ever been only few reports on such application base on NC-FeSi2 up to date. The purposes of this research are to study the preparation and characterization of -FeSi2 and NC-FeSi2 thin films and the heterojunctions comprised of semiconducting iron disilicide (-FeSi2 and NC-FeSi2) and Si by physical vapour deposition process, such as sputtering, pulsed laser deposition in order to employ them to NIR photodetectors and photovoltaics.
Increase a number of members for my research group in Thailand. I can create a new research group for semiconducting FeSi2 in Thailand and contribute knowledge concerning this material to the students. The use of new ecologically friendly semiconducting materials, such as FeSi2 and NCFeSi2, for producing of thin film photovoltaic cells would provide attractive solution to overcome the conventional photovoltaic production problems, especially their full potentialities in terms of lowcost technology and high conversion efficiency that could be demonstrated. The industrial adoption of ecologically friendly production techniques, such as sputtering, has brought the advantage of high quality and very high throughput. In addition, the use of nanocrystalline materials such as NCFeSi2 and NCSi is foreseen as an alternative to aSi in industrial applications particularly in photovoltaic cells and the development of photodiodes operating over a wide range of energies.