Today, the optimum material systems for photoconductive emitters and receivers are different. In THz reflection measurements, this leads to complicated optics or performance compromises. We present photoconductive emitters and detectors fabricated from molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) grown iron (Fe) doped InGaAs, which are well suited for a THz time-domain spectroscopy as both emitters and detectors. As a photoconductive emitter, 75 μW ± 5 μW of radiated THz power was measured. As a detector, THz pulses with a bandwidth of up to 6 THz and a peak dynamic range of 95 dB could be detected. These results are comparable to state-of-the-art THz photoconductors, which allows for simple reflection measurements without a performance decrease. The incorporation of Fe in InGaAs during MBE growth is investigated by secondary ion mass spectroscopy, Hall, and transient differential transmission measurements. Growth temperatures close to 400 °C allow for homogeneous Fe doping concentrations up to 5 × 1020 cm−3 and result in a photoconductor with an electron lifetime of 0.3 ps, a resistivity of 2 kΩ cm, and an electron mobility higher than 900 cm2 V−1 s−1. We show that iron dopants are incorporated up to a maximum concentration of 1 × 1017 cm−3 into substitutional lattice sites. The remaining dopants are electrically inactive and form defects that are anneal-stable up to a temperature of 600 °C. The fast recombination center in Fe-doped InGaAs is an unidentified defect, representing ≈0.5% of the nominal iron concentration. The electron and hole capture cross section of this defect is determined as σe = 3.8 × 10−14 cm2 and σh = 5.5 × 10−15 cm2, respectively.

The surface area of a building that could potentially be used for Building Integrated Photovoltaics would increase dramatically with the availability of transparent solar cells that could replace windows. The challenge is to capture energy from outside the visible region (UV or IR) while simultaneously allowing a high-quality observation of the outside world and transmitting sufficient light in the visible region to satisfactorily illuminate the interior of the building. In this paper, we show both computationally and experimentally that InP nanowire arrays can have good transparency in the visible region and high absorption in the near-infrared region. We show experimentally that we can achieve mean transparencies in the visible region of 65% and the radiative limit of more than 10% based on measured absorption and calculated emission. Our results demonstrate that nanowire arrays hold promise as a method to achieve transparent solar cells, which would fulfill the requirements to function as windows. In addition, we show that by optical design and by designing the geometry of nanowire arrays, solar cells can be achieved that absorb/transmit at wavelengths that are not decided by the bandgap of the material and that can be tailored to specific requirements such as colorful windows.

III−V nanowire (NW) photovoltaic devices promise high efficiencies at reduced materials usage. However, research has so far focused on small devices, mostly ≤ 1 mm². In this study, the upscaling potential of axial junction InP NW photovoltaic devices is investigated. Device processing was carried out on a full 2” wafer, with device sizes up to 1 cm², which is a significant increase from the mm-scale III−V NW photovoltaic devices published previously. The short-circuit current density of the largest 1 cm² devices, in which 460 million NWs are contacted in parallel, is on par with smaller devices. This enables a record power generation of 6.0 mW under AM1.5G llumination, more than one order of magnitude higher than previous III−V NW photovoltaic devices. On the other hand, the fill factor of the larger devices is lower in comparison with smaller devices, which affects the device efficiency. By use of electroluminescence mapping, resistive losses in the indium tin oxide (ITO) front contact are found to limit the fill factor of the large devices. We use combined light-beam induced current (LBIC) and photoluminescence (PL) mapping as a powerful characterization tool for NW photovoltaic devices. From the LBIC and PL maps, local defects can be identified on the fully processed devices.

Nanowire (NW) arrays containing a top segment of GaxIn1–xP are investigated, comparing NWs grown using two different Ga precursors, trimethylgallium (TMGa) and triethylgallium (TEGa). TMGa is the precursor commonly used for the particle‐assisted vapor–liquid–solid (VLS) growth of GaxIn1–xP NWs. However, it shows inefficient pyrolysis at typical NW growth conditions. The use of the alternative precursor TEGa is investigated by making a direct comparison between NWs grown using TEGa and TMGa at otherwise identical growth conditions. Growth rates, resulting NW materials composition, and time‐resolved photoluminescence (TRPL) lifetimes are investigated. With increasing Ga content of the NWs, the TRPL lifetimes decrease, indicating trap states that are associated with GaP. Somewhat longer TRPL lifetimes for the samples grown using TEGa indicate a lower concentration of deep trap states. For doped NWs, it is found that the strong effect of the p‐type dopant diethylzinc (DEZn) on the NW composition, observed for GaxIn1–xP NWs grown using TMGa, is absent when using TEGa.

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