A Stress-Free and Textured GaP Template on Silicon for Solar Water Splitting

Ida Lucci (1) , Simon Charbonnier (2) , Maxime Vallet (3) , Pascal Turban (2) , Yoan Léger (1) , Tony Rohel (1) , Nicolas Bertru (1) , Antoine Létoublon (1) , Jean-Baptiste Rodriguez (4) , Laurent Cerutti (4) , Eric Tournié (4) , Anne Ponchet (3) , Gilles Patriarche (5) , Laurent Pedesseau (1) , Charles Cornet (1)

1 FOTON - Institut des Fonctions Optiques pour les Technologies de l'informatiON
2 IPR - Institut de Physique de Rennes
3 CEMES-SINanO - Surfaces, Interfaces et Nano-Objets
4 NANOMIR - Composants à Nanostructure pour le moyen infrarouge
5 C2N - Centre de Nanosciences et de Nanotechnologies [Marcoussis]

This work shows that a large‐scale textured GaP template monolithically integrated on Si can be developed by using surface energy engineering, for water‐splitting applications. The stability of (114)A facets is first shown, based on scanning tunneling microscopy images, transmission electron microscopy, and atomic force microscopy. These observations are then discussed in terms of thermodynamics through density functional theory calculations. A stress‐free nanopatterned surface is obtained by molecular beam epitaxy, composed of a regular array of GaP (114)A facets over a 2 in. vicinal Si substrate. The advantages of such textured (114)A GaP/Si template in terms of surface gain, band lineups, and ohmic contacts for water‐splitting applications are finally discussed.

Mots clés: GaP/Si; nanopatterning; self‐organization; water splitting; textured surfaces

Domaines: Science des matériaux [cond-mat.mtrl-sci]

Ida Lucci, Simon Charbonnier, Maxime Vallet, Pascal Turban, Yoan Léger, et al.. A Stress-Free and Textured GaP Template on Silicon for Solar Water Splitting. Advanced Functional Materials, 2018, 28 (30), pp.1801585. ⟨10.1002/adfm.201801585⟩. ⟨hal-01803990⟩