Photoactive devices and materials

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9941425-B2
Application number	US-201514885721-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 16, 2015
Priority date	Oct 16, 2015
Publication date	Apr 10, 2018
Grant date	Apr 10, 2018

Abstract

Deposition processes are disclosed herein for depositing thin films comprising a dielectric transition metal compound phase and a conductive or semiconducting transition metal compound phase on a substrate in a reaction space. Deposition processes can include a plurality of super-cycles. Each super-cycle may include a dielectric transition metal compound sub-cycle and a reducing sub-cycle. The dielectric transition metal compound sub-cycle may include contacting the substrate with a dielectric transition metal compound. The reducing sub-cycle may include alternately and sequentially contacting the substrate with a reducing agent and a nitrogen reactant. The thin film may comprise a dielectric transition metal compound phase embedded in a conductive or semiconducting transition metal compound phase.

First claim

We claim:

1. A device including a layer comprising a dielectric transition metal compound phase embedded in a conductive or semiconducting transition metal compound phase, wherein the dielectric transition metal compound phase comprises TiF 3 and the conductive or semiconducting transition metal compound phase comprises TiN.

2. The device of claim 1 , wherein the device is a photonic device.

3. The photonic device of claim 2 , wherein the dielectric transition metal compound phase consists of particles with a diameter of about 0.1 nm to about 500 nm.

4. The photonic device of claim 2 , wherein the conductive or semiconducting transition metal compound phase surrounds discrete dielectric transition metal compound phase particles.

5. The photonic device of claim 2 , wherein the layer comprises a photoactive material; and
wherein the layer absorbs radiant energy of photons incident to a surface of the photonic device to produce electrical energy in an electrical circuit.

6. The photonic device of claim 2 , wherein the layer utilizes electrical energy in an electrical circuit to produce photons.

7. The photonic device of claim 2 , wherein the layer comprising the dielectric transition metal compound phase embedded in the conductive or semiconducting transition metal compound phase acts as a photon transparent layer; and
wherein the photon transparent layer allows photons incident on a surface of the photon transparent layer to pass through the photon transparent layer to a photoactive layer.

8. The photonic device of claim 2 , wherein the layer comprising the dielectric transition metal compound phase embedded in the conductive or semiconducting transition metal compound phase acts as a charge collecting component that collects photon-excited charge carriers.

9. The photonic device of claim 2 , wherein the layer comprising the dielectric transition metal compound phase embedded in the conductive or semiconducting transition metal compound phase acts as a waveguide component capable of transferring a photon flux incident on a first portion of the photonic device to a second portion of the photonic device.

10. The photonic device of claim 2 , further comprising a charge collecting component that collects photon-excited charge carriers, wherein the charge collecting component comprises at least one of indium tin oxide, doped tin oxide, zinc oxide, doped zinc oxide, conductive polymer, a metal grid, carbon nanotubes, graphene, or a nanowire thin film.

11. The photonic device of claim 2 , further comprising a photoactive component comprising at least one of Si, SiGe, Ge, CdTe, GaAs, GaSb, or InGaAs.

12. A photoactive material comprising a dielectric transition metal compound phase embedded in a conductive or semiconducting transition metal compound phase, wherein the dielectric transition metal compound phase comprises TiF 3 and the conductive or semiconducting transition metal compound phase comprises TiN.

13. The photoactive material of claim 12 , wherein the photoactive material absorbs radiant energy of photons to produce electrical energy in an electrical circuit.

14. The photoactive material of claim 12 , wherein the photoactive material is a photon transparent electrically conductive material.

15. The photoactive material of claim 12 , wherein the photoactive material is a waveguide material; and
wherein the waveguide material is capable of transferring a photon flux incident on a first portion of the waveguide material to a second portion of the waveguide material.

16. A vapor deposition process for depositing a layer in a photonic device, wherein the layer comprises a dielectric transition metal compound phase embedded in a conductive or semiconducting transition metal compound phase, wherein the dielectric transition metal compound phase comprises TiF 3 and the conductive or semiconducting transition metal compound phase comprises TiN.

17. The vapor deposition process of claim 16 , wherein the vapor deposition process comprises a plurality of super-cycles, each of the plurality of super-cycles comprising a dielectric transition metal compound sub-cycle and a reducing sub-cycle, wherein:
the dielectric transition metal compound sub-cycle comprises contacting a substrate with a vapor phase dielectric transition metal compound; and
the reducing sub-cycle comprises alternately and sequentially contacting the substrate with a reducing agent and a nitrogen reactant.

18. The vapor deposition process of claim 17 , wherein the reducing agent comprises silane or borane.

19. The vapor deposition process of claim 17 , wherein the nitrogen reactant comprises at least one of ammonia, N 2 H 4 , nitrogen atoms, nitrogen containing plasma, and nitrogen radicals.

Assignees

• Asm Ip Holding Bv
• Asm Ip Holdings B V

Inventors

• Blomberg Tom E
• Huotari Hannu

Classifications

• C23C16/30

  Deposition of compounds, mixtures or solid solutions, e.g. borides, carbides, nitrides · CPC title

• C23C14/0694

  Halides · CPC title

• Y02E10/50

  Photovoltaic [PV] energy · CPC title

• C23C16/45525

  Atomic layer deposition [ALD] · CPC title

• C23C16/22

  characterised by the deposition of inorganic material, other than metallic material · CPC title