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APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 91 » Issue 24
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 246403 (2003) [4 pages]

Diluted II-VI Oxide Semiconductors with Multiple Band Gaps

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K. M. Yu1, W. Walukiewicz1, J. Wu1, W. Shan1, J. W. Beeman1, M. A. Scarpulla1,2, O. D. Dubon1,2, and P. Becla3
1Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
2Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
3Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA

Received 24 July 2003; published 11 December 2003

We report the realization of a new mult-band-gap semiconductor. Zn1-yMnyOxTe1-x alloys have been synthesized using the combination of oxygen ion implantation and pulsed laser melting. Incorporation of small quantities of isovalent oxygen leads to the formation of a narrow, oxygen-derived band of extended states located within the band gap of the Zn1-yMnyTe host. When only 1.3% of Te atoms are replaced with oxygen in a Zn0.88Mn0.12Te crystal the resulting band structure consists of two direct band gaps with interband transitions at ∼1.77 and 2.7 eV. This remarkable modification of the band structure is well described by the band anticrossing model. With multiple band gaps that fall within the solar energy spectrum, Zn1-yMnyOxTe1-x is a material perfectly satisfying the conditions for single-junction photovoltaics with the potential for power conversion efficiencies surpassing 50%.

© 2003 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.91.246403
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.91.246403
PACS:
71.20.Nr, 61.72.Vv, 78.66.Hf, 89.30.Cc
 
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