Efficient n-GaAs photoelectrodes grown by close-spaced vapor transport from a solid source

n-GaAs films were grown epitaxially on n(+)-GaAs substrates by a close-spaced vapor transport method and their photoelectrochemical energy conversion properties studied. Under 100 mW cm(-2) of ELH solar simulation, conversion efficiencies up to 9.3% for CSVT n-GaAs photoanodes were measured in an unoptimized ferrocene/ferrocenium test cell. This value was significantly higher than the 5.7% measured for similarly doped commercial n-GaAs wafers. Spectral response experiments showed that the higher performance of CSVT n-GaAs films relative to the commercial wafers was due to longer minority carrier diffusion lengths (L(D)), up to 1,020 nm in the CSVT films compared to 260 nm in the commercial n-GaAs wafers. Routes to improve the performance of CSVT GaAs and the implications of these results for the development of scalable GaAs-based solar energy conversion devices are discussed.