Single crystalline-like germanium films on flexible, lattice mismatched substrates for photovoltaic applications

Single crystalline-like Ge films have been successfully grown on flexible polycrystalline substrates using templates created by ion beam assisted deposition (IBAD). No epitaxial growth was found to be possible when Ge is directly grown on MgO. However an intermediate layer of CeO
₂
was found to enable epitaxial growth of Ge. Also, textured Si has been demonstrated on CeO
₂
-buffered IBAD templates on metal substrates. These single crystalline-like Ge films can be used as templates for growth of III-V photovoltaics on inexpensive, flexible substrates.