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Laser liftoff of gallium arsenide thin films

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Abstract

The high cost of single-crystal III–V substrates limits the use of gallium arsenide (GaAs) and related sphalerite III–V materials in many applications, especially photovoltaics. However, by making devices from epitaxially grown III–V layers that are separated from a growth substrate, one can recycle the growth substrate to reduce costs. Here, we show damage-free removal of an epitaxial single-crystal GaAs film from its GaAs growth substrate using a laser that is absorbed by a smaller band gap, pseudomorphic indium gallium arsenide nitride layer grown between the substrate and the GaAs film. The liftoff process transfers the GaAs film to a flexible polymer substrate, and the transferred GaAs layer is indistinguishable in structural quality from its growth substrate.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the National Science Foundation, and the ARCS Foundation, for supporting Garrett Hayes through fellowships; David Susnitzky, Fangfang Mao, and Robert Mendez of Evans Analytical Group in Sunnyvale, CA for their work in preparing and imaging the TEM cross-sections; John Goodfellow and Karel Urbanek for assisting with the laser experiments; Grey Christoforo for thermal modeling; Xiaoqing Xu and Vijay Parameshwaran for MOCVD assistance; Robert Chen for his expertise and assistance with the PL measurements; Tomas Sarmiento for assistance with the Band Anticrossing model calculations; Bob Hammond for his mentorship; and Alberto Salleo for continual guidance and free roam of his laser laboratory.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California, 94305, USA

    Garrett J. Hayes & Bruce M. Clemens

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  1. Garrett J. Hayes
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  2. Bruce M. Clemens
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Correspondence to Garrett J. Hayes.

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For supplementary material for this article, please visit http://dx.doi.org/10.1557/mrc.2015.2

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Hayes, G.J., Clemens, B.M. Laser liftoff of gallium arsenide thin films. MRS Communications 5, 1–5 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1557/mrc.2015.2

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