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In order to effectively utilize the photovoltaic properties of gallium arsenide, its surface/interface needs to be properly prepared. In the experiments described here we examined eight different paths of GaAs surface treatment (cleaning, etching, passivation) which resulted in different external quantum efficiency (EQE) values of the tested photovoltaic (PV) cells. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) examinations were conducted to obtain structural details of the devices. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) with depth profiling was used to examine interface structure and changes in the elemental content and chemical bonds. The photoluminescence (PL) properties and bandgap measurements of the deposited layers were also reported. The highest EQE value was obtained for the samples initially etched with a citric acid-based etchant and, in the last preparation step, either passivated with ammonium sulfide aqueous solution or treated with ammonium hydroxide solution with no final passivation. Subsequent I–V measurements, however, confirmed that from these samples, only the sulfur-passivated ones provided the highest current density. The tested devices were fabricated by using the ALD method.

The structural, optical, and electrical properties of ZnO are intimately intertwined. In the present work, the structural and transport properties of 100 nm thick polycrystalline ZnO films obtained by atomic layer deposition (ALD) at a growth temperature (Tg) of 100–300 °C were investigated. The electrical properties of the films showed a dependence on the substrate (a-Al2O3 or Si (100)) and a high sensitivity to Tg, related to the deviation of the film stoichiometry as demonstrated by the RT-Hall effect. The average crystallite size increased from 20–30 nm for as grown samples to 80–100 nm after rapid thermal annealing, which affects carrier scattering. The ZnO layers deposited on silicon showed lower strain and dislocation density than on sapphire at the same Tg. The calculated half crystallite size (D/2) was higher than the Debye length (LD) for all as grown and annealed ZnO films, except for annealed ZnO/Si films grown within the ALD window (100–200 °C), indicating different homogeneity of charge carrier distribution for annealed ZnO/Si and ZnO/a-Al2O3 layers. For as grown films the hydrogen impurity concentration detected via secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) was 1021 cm−3 and was decreased by two orders of magnitude after annealing, accompanied by a decrease in Urbach energy in the ZnO/a-Al2O3 layers.

Selected properties of photovoltaic (PV) structures based on n-type zinc oxide nanorods grown by a low temperature hydrothermal method on p-type silicon substrates (100) are investigated. PV structures were covered with thin films of Al doped ZnO grown by atomic layer deposition acting as transparent electrodes. The investigated PV structures differ in terms of the shapes and densities of their nanorods. The best response is observed for the structure containing closely-spaced nanorods, which show light conversion efficiency of 3.6%.