• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.98.2-98.2
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• 2012

Thin film solar cells are growing up in the market due to their high efficiency and low cost. Especially CdTe and $CuInGaSe_2$ based solar cells are leading the other cells, but due to the limited percentage of the elements present in our earth's crust like Tellurium, Indium and Gallium, the price of the solar cells will increase rapidly. Copper Zinc Tin Sulfide (CZTS) and Copper Zinc Tin Selenide (CZTSe) semiconductor (having a kesterite crystal structure) are getting attention for its solar cell application as the absorber layer. CZTS and CZTSe have almost the same crystal structure with more environmentally friendly elements. Various authors have reported growth and characterization of CZTSe films and solar cells with efficiencies about 3.2% to 8.9%. In this study, a novel method to prepare CZTSe has been proposed based on selenization of stacked Copper Selenide ($Cu_2Se$), Tin Selenide ($SnSe_2$) and Zinc Selenide (Zinc Selenide) in six possible stacking combinations. Depositions were carried out through RF magnetron sputtering. Selenization of all the samples was performed in Close Space Sublimation (CSS) in vacuum at different temperatures for three minutes. Characterization of each sample has been performed in Field Emission SEM, XRD, Raman spectroscopy, EDS and Auger. In this study, the properties and results of $Cu_2ZnSnSe_4$ thin films grown by selenization will be presented.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.183-189
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• 2013

$Cu_2ZnSn(S,Se)_4$ material is receiving an increased amount of attention for solar cell applications as an absorber layer because it consists of inexpensive and abundant materials (Zn and Sn) instead of the expensive and rare materials (In and Ga) in $Cu(In,Ga)Se_2$ solar cells. We were able to achieve a cell conversion efficiency to 4.7% by the selenization of a stacked metal precursor with the Cu/(Zn + Sn)/Mo/glass structure. However, the selenization of the metal precursor results in large voids at the absorber/Mo interface because metals diffuse out through the top CZTSe layer. To avoid the voids at the absorber/Mo interface, binary selenide compounds of ZnSe and $SnSe_2$ were employed as a precursor instead of Zn and Sn metals. It was found that the precursor with Cu/$SnSe_2$/ZnSe stack provided a uniform film with larger grains compared to that with $Cu_2Se/SnSe_2$/ZnSe stack. Also, voids were not observed at the $Cu_2ZnSnSe_4$/Mo interface. A severe loss of Sn was observed after a high-temperature annealing process, suggesting that selenization in this case should be performed in a closed system with a uniform temperature in a $SnSe_2$ environment. However, in the experiments, Cu top-layer stack had more of an effect on reducing Sn loss compared to $Cu_2Se$ top-layer stack.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.306-306
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• 2011

Three dimensional(3D) topological insulators(TIs) of Bi binary alloys are characterized by a bulk energy gap with strong spin-orbit coupling and metallic surface states protected by time-reversal symmetry. It was reported that film forms of such materials were advantageous over bulk forms due to less defect density and better crystallinity. So far, the films have been prepared on several substrates including semiconductors and graphene. But, there were no studies on metal substrates. For electronic transport experiments and device applications, it is necessary to know epitaxial relation between TIs and metal electrodes. In this study, Atomically flat films of Bi2Se3 were grown on a Au(111) metal substrate by in-situ molecular beam epitaxy. Using home-built scanning tunneling microscope, we observed hexagonal atomic structures which corresponded to the outmost selenium atomic layer of Bi2Se3. Triangular-shaped defects known as Selenium vacancy were also found.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.08a
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• pp.302-302
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• 2011

The binary chalcogenide semiconductor Bi2Se3 is at the center of intensive research on a new state of matter known as topological insulators. It has Dirac point in their band structures with robust surface states that are protected against external perturbations by strong spin-orbit coupling with broken inversion symmetry. Such unique band configurations were confirmed by recent angle-resolved photoelectron emission spectroscopy experiments with an unwanted n-type doping effect, showing a Fermi level shift of about 0.3 eV caused by atomic defects such as Se vacancies. Since the number of defects can be reduced using the molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) method. We have prepared the Bi2Se3 film on noble metal Au(111) and semiconductor Si(111) substrates by MBE method. To characterize the film, we have introduced several surface sensitive techniques including x-ray photoemission electron spectroscopy (XPS) and micro Raman spectroscopy. Also, crystallinity of the film has been confirmed by x-ray diffraction (XRD). Using home-built scanning tunneling microscope, we observed the atomic structure of quintuple layered Bi2Se3 film on Au(111).

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.483-489
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• 2016

Here, we examined the photo-degradation efficiency of $Cu_2Se$-graphene nanocomposites synthesized by a facile and fast microwave-assisted technique. The prepared composites were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Raman spectroscopy, XPS and UV-Vis spectrophotometry. The photocatalytic performance was studied through the decomposition of Rhodamine (Rh B) as a standard dye under visible light radiation. A 95% of Rh B degradation after visible light irradiation for 180 min indicates that the $Cu_2Se$-graphene composite exhibited significant photodegradation efficiency. Therefore, it can be concluded that the synthesized $Cu_2Se$-graphene can be used as a suitable catalyst for decomposing dye pollutants.