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The interaction of gold with gallium arsenideGold and gold-based alloys, commonly used as solar-cell contact materials, are known to react readily with gallium arsenide. Experiments designed to identify the mechanisms involved in these GaAs-metal interactions have yielded several interesting results. It is shown that the reaction of GaAs with gold takes place via a dissociative diffusion process. It is shown further that the GaAs-metal reaction rate is controlled to a very great extent by the condition of the free surface of the contact metal, an interesting example of which is the previously unexplained increase in the reaction rate that has been observed for samples annealed in a vacuum environment as compared to those annealed in a gaseous ambient. A number of other hard-to-explain observations, such as the low-temperature formation of voids in the gold lattice and crystallite growth on the gold surface, are also explained by invoking this mechanism.
Document ID
19890029045
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
External Source(s)
Authors
Weizer, Victor G.
(NASA Lewis Research Center Cleveland, OH, United States)
Fatemi, Navid S.
(Sverdrup Technology, Inc. Middleburg Heights, OH, United States)
Date Acquired
August 14, 2013
Publication Date
November 1, 1988
Publication Information
Publication: Journal of Applied Physics
Volume: 64
ISSN: 0021-8979
Subject Category
Inorganic And Physical Chemistry
Accession Number
89A16416
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other

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