High-quality InGaN/GaN heterojunctions and their photovoltaic effects

High-quality p-GaN/i-In0.1Ga0.9N/n-GaN heterojunctional epilayers are grown on (0001)-oriented sapphire substrates by metal organic chemical vapor deposition. The Pendellosung fringes around the InGaN peak in high-resolution x-ray diffraction (HRXRD) confirm a sharp interface between InGaN and GaN films. The corresponding HRXRD and photoluminescence measurements demonstrate that there is no observable phase separation. The improvement in crystal quality yields high-performance photovoltaic cells with open-circuit voltage of around 2.1 eV and fill factor up to 81% under standard AM 1.5 condition. The dark current-voltage measurements show very large shunt resistance, implying an insignificant leakage current in the devices and therefore achieving the high fill factor in the illuminated case.