Direct growth of GaAs solar cells on Si substrate via mesoporous Si buffer

Due to Silicon (Si) material abundance and lower cost, integration of high efficiency III-V solar cells on Si substrates is of major importance for future solar energy harvesting devices. In this paper, we report on the growth optimization with a detailed characterization of epitaxial growth of crystalline GaAs on porous silicon layers (PSL), and demonstration of single-junction GaAs solar cell on PSL performances. GaAs deposition is performed on engineered porous Si surfaces with different growth temperatures. One and two-steps growth (TSG) were also investigated. X-ray diffraction demonstrated almost one order of magnitude lower threading dislocation density (TDD) of 2× 108 cm-2 for TSG process of GaAs on PSL compared to the one-step growth. Atomic Force Microscopy and Scanning Electron Microscopy showed that a reduction of growth temperature leads to surface morphology improvement. A single junction GaAs solar cell heterostructure grown by TSG and fabricated atop the porous layer, demonstrated higher open-circuit voltage (Voc) and fill factor (FF) when compared to an identical structure grown on crystalline Si (c-Si). •First GaAs solar cell demonstration on Porous Silicon Layer.•Evaluation of nanoheteroepitaxtial (NHE) growth on engineered porous Si surface.•Two-step growth for good crystalline quality GaAs layers..•Defect density in the layers attributed principally to threading dislocations (TDs) and antiphase domains/boundaries.•Porous Silicon Layers help reduces GaAs layers strain.