• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
• /
• 2004.07a
• /
• pp.413-416
• /
• 2004

In this study, zinc oxide(ZnO) having large misfit(18.2%) with sapphire was tried to be grown on very thin nitride buffer layers. For the creation of various kinds of nitride buffer layer, sapphire surface was modified by an irradiation of nitrogen ion beam with low energy generated from stationary plasma thruster(SPT) at room temperature. After the irradiation of ion beam, Al-N and Al-O-N bonding was identified to be formed as nitride buffet layers. Surface morphology was measured by AFM and then ZnO growth was followed by pulsed laser deposition(PLD). Their properties are analyzed by XRD, AFM, TEM, and PL. We observed that surface morphology was improved and deep level emission related to defects was almost vanished in PL spectra from the ZnO grown on nitride buffer layer.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2011.08a
• /
• pp.377-377
• /
• 2011

Organic solar cells (OSCs) with low cost have been studied to apply on flexible substrate by solution process in low temperature [1]. In previous researches, conventional organic solar cell was composed of metal oxide anode, buffer layer such as PEDOT:PSS, photoactive layer, and metal cathode with low work function. In this structure, indium tin oxide (ITO) and Al was generally used as metal oxide anode and metal cathode, respectively. However, they showed poor reliability, because PEDOT:PSS was sensitive to moisture and air, and the low work function metal cathode was easily oxidized to air, resulting in decreased efficiency in half per day [2]. Inverted organic solar cells (IOSCs) using high work function metal and buffer layer replacing the PEDOT:PSS have focused as a solution in conventional organic solar cell. On the contrary to conventional OSCs, ZnO and TiO2 are required to be used as a buffer layer, since the ITO in IOSC is used as cathode to collect electrons and block holes. The ZnO is expected to be excellent electron transport layer (ETL), because the ZnO has the advantages of high electron mobility, stability in air, easy fabrication at room temperature, and UV absorption. In this study, the IOSCs based on poly [N-900-hepta-decanyl-2,7-carbazole-alt-5,5-(40,70-di-2-thienyl-20,10,30-benzothiadiazole)] (PCDTBT) : [6,6]-phenyl C71 butyric acid methyl ester (PC70BM) were fabricated with the ZnO electron-transport layer and MoO3 hole-transport layer. Thickness of the ZnO for electron-transport layer was controlled by rotation speed in spin-coating. The PCDTBT and PC70BM were mixed with a ratio of 1:2 as an active layer. As a result, the highest efficiency of 2.53% was achieved.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
• /
• v.17 no.2
• /
• pp.61-67
• /
• 2007

The magnetron reactive sputtering was adopted to deposit CuO buffer layers on the polyimide surfaces for increasing the adhesion strength between Cu thin films and polyimide, varying $O_2$ gas flow rate from 1 to 5 sccm. The CuO oxide was formed through all the $O_2$ gas flow rates of 1 to 5 sccm, showing the highest value at the 3 sccm $O_2$ gas flow rate. The XPS analysis revealed that the $Cu_2O$ oxide was also formed with a significant ratio during the reactive sputtering. The adhesion strength is mainly dependent on the amount of CuO in the buffer layers, which can react with C-O-C or C-N bonds on the polyimide surfaces. The adhesion strength of the multi-layered Cu/buffer layer/polyimide specimen decreased linearly as the heating temperature increased to $300^{\circ}C$, even though there showd no significant change in the chemical state at the polyimide interface. This result is attributed to the decrease in surface roughness of deposited copper oxide on the polyimide, when it is heated.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
• /
• v.28 no.6
• /
• pp.296-299
• /
• 2015

$In_2O_3/Ti$ bi-layered films were deposited on glass substrate at room temperature with radio frequency (RF) and direct current (DC) magnetron sputtering to consider the effect of Ti buffer layer on the electrical and optical properties. In a comparison of figure of merit, $In_2O_3$ 90 nm/Ti 10 nm thin films show the higher opto-electrical performance of $3.0{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}^{-1}$ than that of the $In_2O_3$ single layer films ($2.6{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}^{-1}$). From the observed results, it is supposed that the $In_2O_3\;90nm/TiO_2$ 10 nm bi-layered films may be an alternative candidate for transparent electrode in a transparent thin film transistor device.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
• /
• v.20 no.5
• /
• pp.986-991
• /
• 2016

In this study, we prepared ITO thin films on $Nb_2O_5/SiO_2$ double buffer layer using DC magnetron sputtering method and investigated electrical and optical properties with various substrate temperatures (room temperature ~ $400^{\circ}C$). The resistivity showed a decreasing tendency, because crystallinity has been improved due to the enlarged grain size with increasing substrate temperature. ITO thin film deposited at $400^{\circ}C$ showed the most excellent value of resistivity and sheet resistance as $3.03{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$, $86.6{\Omega}/sq.$, respectively. In results of optical properties, average transmittance was increased but chromaticity ($b^*$) was decreased in visible light region (400~800nm) with increasing substrate temperature. Average transmittance and chromaticity ($b^*$) of ITO thin film deposited at $400^{\circ}C$ exhibited significantly improved results as 85.8% and 2.13 compared to 82.8% and 4.56 of the ITO thin film without buffer layer. Finally, we found that ITO thin film introduced $Nb_2O_5/SiO_2$ double buffer layer has a remarkably improved optical property such as transmittance and chromaticity due to the index matching effect.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
• /
• v.30 no.10
• /
• pp.625-630
• /
• 2017

ZnS was chemically deposited as a buffer layer alternative to CdS, for use as a Cd-free buffer layer in $Cu(In_{1-x}Ga_x)Se_2$ (CIGS) solar cells. The deposition of a thin film of ZnS was carried out by chemical bath deposition, following which the structural and optical properties of the ZnS layer were studied. For the experiments, zinc sulfate hepta-hydrate ($ZnSO_4{\cdot}7H_2O$), thiourea ($SC(NH_2)_2$), and ammonia ($NH_4OH$) were used as the reacting agents. The mole concentrations of $ZnSO_4$ and $SC(NH_2)_2$ were fixed at 0.03 M and 0.8 M, respectively, while that of ammonia, which acts as a complexing agent, was varied from 0.3 M to 3.5 M. By varying the mole concentration of ammonia, optimal values for parameters like optical transmission, deposition rate, and surface morphology were determined. For the fixed mole concentrations of $0.03M\;ZnSO_4{\cdot}7H_2O$ and $0.8M\;SC(NH_2)_2$, it was established that 3.0 M of ammonia could provide optimal values of the deposition rate (5.5 nm/min), average optical transmittance (81%), and energy band gap (3.81 eV), rendering the chemically deposited ZnS suitable for use as a Cd-free buffer layer in CIGS solar cells.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
• /
• v.52 no.9
• /
• pp.400-406
• /
• 2003

Efficient electrodes are devised for organic luminescent device(OLED). ITO electrode is treated with $O_2$ plasma. In order to inject hole efficiently, there is proposed the shape of anode that inserted plasma polymerized films as buffer layer between anode and organic layer using thiophene monomer. In the case of device inserted the buffer layer by using the plasma polymerization after $O_2$ plasma processing for ITO transparent electrode, since it forms the stable interface and reduce the moving speed of hole, the recombination of hole and electronic are made in the emitting layer. Therefore it realized the device capability of two times in the aspect of luminous efficiency than the device which do not be inserted the buffer layer. Experiments are limited to the device that has the structure of TPD/$AIq_3$, however, the aforementioned electrodes can similarly applied to the organic luminous device and the Polymer luminous device.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2010.08a
• /
• pp.160-160
• /
• 2010

Organic electronic devices require a passivation layer to ensure sufficient lifetime. Specifically, flexible organic electronic devices need a barrier layer that transmits less than $10^{-6}\;g/m^2/day$ of water and $10^{-5}\;g/m^2/day$ of oxygen. To increase the lifetime of organic electronic device, therefore, it is indispensable to protect the organic materials from water and oxygen. Severe groups have reported on multi-layerd barriers consisting inorganic thin films deposited by plasma enhenced chemical deposition (PECVD) or sputtering. However, it is difficult to control the formation of granular-type morphology and microscopic pinholes in PECVD and sputtering. On the contrary, atomic layer deoposition (ALD) is free of pinhole, highly uniform, conformal films and show good step coverage. In this study, the passivation layer was deposited using single-process PEALD. The passivation layer, in our case, was a bilayer system consisting of $Al_2O_3$ films and a $TiO_2$ buffer layer on a poly (ether sulfon) (PES) substrate. Because the deposition temperature and plasma power have a significant effect on the properties of the passivation layer, the characteristics of the $Al_2O_3$ films were investigated in terms of density under different deposition temperatures and plasma powers. The effect of the $TiO_2$ buffer layer also was also addressed. In addition, the water vapor transmission rate (WVTR) and organic light-emitting diode (OLEDs) lifetime were measured after forming a bilayer composed of $Al_2O_3/TiO_2$ on a PES substrate.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
• /
• v.18 no.3
• /
• pp.213-220
• /
• 2009

The optimal condition of low temperature deposition of transparent conductive Al-doped zinc oxide (AZO) films is studied by RF magnetron sputtering method. To achieve enhanced-electrical property and good crystallites quality, we tried to deposit on glass using a two-step growth process. This process was to deposit AZO buffer layer with optimal growth condition on glass in-situ state. The AZO film grown at rf 120 W on buffer layer prepared at RF $50{\sim}60\;W$ shows the electrical resistivity $3.9{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}cm$, Carrier concentration $1.22{\times}10^{21}/cm^3$, and mobility $9.9\;cm^2/Vs$ in these results, The crystallinity of AZO film on buffer layer was similar to that of AZO film on glass with no buffer later but the electrical properties of the AZO film were 30% improved than that of the AZO film with no buffer layer. Therefore, the cause of enhanced electrical properties was explained to be dependent on degree of crystallization and on buffer layer's compressive stress by variation of $Ar^+$ ion impinging energy.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
• /
• 1995.11a
• /
• pp.329-331
• /
• 1995

Laser ablation was used to fabricate superconducting $YBa_2Cu_3O_{7-x}$ (YBCO) thin films on metallic substrates with an YSZ buffer layer. An ArF excimer laser with an wavelength of 193 nm was used to deposit both YSZ buffer layer and superconducting thin film. The characterizations of thin films were performed and compared. With a 200 nm YSZ buffer layer, c-axis orientation and $T_c$=85 K were obtained for a 200 nm-thick YBCO film.