• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.230-230
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• 2013

In amorphous or microcrystalline thin-film silicon solar cells, p-i-n structure is used instead of p/n junction structure as in wafer-based Si solar cells. Hence, these p-i-n structured solar cells inevitably consist of many interfaces and the cell efficiency critically depends on the effective control of these interfaces. In this study, in-situ plasma treatment process of the interfaces was developed to improve the efficiency of a-Si:H solar cell. The p-i-n cell was deposited using a single-chamber VHF-PECVD system, which was driven by a pulsed-RF generator at 80 MHz. In order to solve the cross-contamination problem of p-i layer, high RF power was applied without supplying SiH4 gas after p-layer deposition, which effectively cleaned B contamination inside chamber wall from p-layer deposition. In addition to the p-i interface control, various interface control techniques such as thin layer of TiO2 deposition to prevent H2 plasma reduction of FTO layer, multiple applications of thin i-layer deposition and H2 plasma treatment, H2 plasma treatment of i-layer prior to n-layer deposition, etc. were developed. In order to reduce the reflection at the air-glass interface, anti-reflective SiO2 coating was also adopted. The initial solar cell efficiency over 11% could be achieved for test cell area of 0.2 $cm^2$.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.58 no.12
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• pp.2425-2430
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• 2009

Dye-sensitized solar cell(DSC) is composed of a dye-adsorbed nanoporous $TiO_2$ layer on fluorine-doped tin oxide(FTO) glass substrate, electrolyte, and platinium doped counter electrode. Among these, a dye-absorbed nanoporous $TiO_2$ layer plays an important role in the performance of the DSC because the injected electrons from excited dye molecules move through this layer. And the condition of $TiO_2$ layer such as the morphology and thickness affects on the electron movement. Therefore, the performances and the efficiency of DSC change as the thickness of $TiO_2$ layer is different. Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy(EIS) is the powerful analysis method to study the kinetics of electrochemical and photoelectrochemical processes occurring in the DSC especially the injected electron movements. So we analyzed the DSCs with different $TiO_2$ thicknesses by using EIS to understand the influence of the $TiO_2$ thickness to the performance of the DSC clearly. Finally, we got the EIS analysis on the DSC with different $TiO_2$ thickness from the internal resistance of the DSC, the electron life time and the amount of dye molecules.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.08a
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• pp.126-126
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• 2011

수직으로 정렬된 1차원 ZnO nanorod arrays (NRAs)는 효율적인 반사방지 특성의 기하학적 구조를 갖고 있어, 크기와 모양 그리고 정렬형태의 다양한 설계를 통해 빛의 흡수율과 광 추출효율을 증가시켜 광전소자 및 태양광 소자의 성능을 향상시킬 수 있으며, 최근 이러한 연구에 대한 관심이 집중되고 있다. 본 연구에서는 ZnO NRAs의 넓은 표면적과 불연속적인 독특한 표면을 활용하여 광학적 특성을 효과적으로 개선하였다. 실험을 위해, thermal evaporator를 사용하여 Au와 Ag 그리고 e-beam evaporator를 사용하여 $SiO_2$를 ZnO NRAs 표면에 여러 가지 조건으로 증착하여, 독특한 계층 나노구조의 형성과 광학적 특성을 관찰하였다. 표면 roughness가 큰 FTO/glass 위에 수열합성법을 통해 끝이 뾰족하고, 비스듬히 정렬된 ZnO nano-tip array에 Au를 증착할 경우 ZnO/Au core/shell 구조가 형성되며, Au의 광 흡수율이 매우 크게 증가함을 관찰할 수 있었다. 반면 flat한 표면위에 빽빽하게 수직으로 정렬된 ZnO NRAs를 성장시켜 그 위에 Ag를 증착할 경우, evaporated Ag flux가 ZnO nanorod의 사이에 scattered 되어 ZnO nanorod 기둥의 측면에 직경이 50 nm 이하인 nanoparticles이 decorated 되어 국소표면플라즈몬 현상이 관찰되었으며, 이러한 효과를 통해 입사되는 빛의 흡수율을 효과적으로 증가시킬 수 있었다. 또한, ZnO NRAs의 표면에 $SiO_2$를 e-beam evaporator를 이용하여 증착할 경우, 자연적으로 vapor flux와 ZnO nanorod 사이에 oblique angle이 $80^{\circ}$ 이상으로 증가하여 $SiO_2$ nanorods가 자발적으로 형성되어 ZnO/$SiO_2$ branch 계층형태의 나노구조를 제작할 수 있었다. 이러한 구조는 유효 graded refractive index profile로 인해 기존의 ZnO NRAs보다 개선된 반사방지 특성을 나타냈다. 이러한 계층 나노구조의 광학적 특성을 시뮬레이션을 통해 이론적으로 분석을 통해 광전자 소자의 성능의 개선에 대한 적용 가능성을 조사하였다.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2018

Uniform $TiO_2$ blocking layers (BLs) are fabricated using ultrasonic spray pyrolysis deposition (USPD) method. To improve the photovoltaic performance of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), the BL thickness is controlled by using USPD times of 0, 20, 60, and 100 min, creating $TiO_2$ BLs of 0, 40, 70, and 100 nm, respectively, in average thickness on fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) glass. Compared to the other samples, the DSSC containing the uniform $TiO_2$ BL of 70 nm in thickness shows a superior power conversion efficiency of $7.58{\pm}0.20%$ because of the suppression of electron recombination by the effect of the optimized thickness. The performance improvement is mainly attributed to the increased open-circuit voltage ($0.77{\pm}0.02V$) achieved by the increased Fermi energy levels of the working electrodes and the improved short-circuit current density ($15.67{\pm}0.43mA/cm^2$) by efficient electron transfer pathways. Therefore, optimized $TiO_2$ BLs fabricated by USPD may allow performance improvements in DSSCs.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.20 no.12
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• pp.676-680
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• 2010

Most TCOs such as ITO, AZO(Al-doped ZnO), FTO(F-doped $SnO_2$) etc., which have been widely used in LCD, touch panel, solar cell, and organic LEDs etc. as transparent electrode material reveal n-type conductivity. But in order to realize transparent circuit, transparent p-n junction, and introduction of transparent p-type materials are prerequisite. Additional prerequisite condition is optical transparency in visible spectral region. Oxide based materials usually have a wide optical bandgap more than ~3.0 eV. In this study, single-phase transparent semiconductor of $SrCu_2O_2$, which shows p-type conductivity, have been synthesized by 2-step solid state reaction at $950^{\circ}C$ under $N_2$ atmosphere, and single-phase $SrCu_2O_2$ thin films of p-type TCOs have been deposited by RF magnetron sputtering on alkali-free glass substrate from single-phase target at $500^{\circ}C$, 1% $H_2$/(Ar + $H_2$) atmosphere. 3% $H_2$/(Ar + $H_2$) resulted in formation of second phases. Hall measurements confirmed the p-type nature of the fabricated $SrCu_2O_2$ thin films. The electrical conductivity, mobility of carrier and carrier density $5.27{\times}10^{-2}S/cm$, $2.2cm^2$/Vs, $1.53{\times}10^{17}/cm^3$ a room temperature, respectively. Transmittance and optical band-gap of the $SrCu_2O_2$ thin films revealed 62% at 550 nm and 3.28 eV. The electrical and optical properties of the obtained $SrCu_2O_2$ thin films deposited by RF magnetron sputtering were compared with those deposited by PLD and e-beam.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.204-205
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• 2011

In thin film silicon solar cells, p-i-n structure is adopted instead of p/n junction structure as in wafer-based Si solar cells. PECVD is a most widely used thin film deposition process for a-Si:H or ${\mu}c$-Si:H solar cells. For best performance of thin film silicon solar cell, the dopant profiles at p/i and i/n interfaces need to be as sharp as possible. The sharpness of dopant profiles can easily achieved when using multi-chamber PECVD equipment, in which each layer is deposited in separate chamber. However, in a single-chamber PECVD system, doped and intrinsic layers are deposited in one plasma chamber, which inevitably impedes sharp dopant profiles at the interfaces due to the contamination from previous deposition process. The cross-contamination between layers is a serious drawback of a single-chamber PECVD system in spite of the advantage of lower initial investment cost for the equipment. In order to resolve the cross-contamination problem in single-chamber PECVD systems, flushing method of the chamber with NH3 gas or water vapor after doped layer deposition process has been used. In this study, a new plasma process to solve the cross-contamination problem in a single-chamber PECVD system was suggested. A single-chamber VHF-PECVD system was used for superstrate type p-i-n a-Si:H solar cell manufacturing on Asahi-type U FTO glass. A 80 MHz and 20 watts of pulsed RF power was applied to the parallel plate RF cathode at the frequency of 10 kHz and 80% duty ratio. A mixture gas of Ar, H2 and SiH4 was used for i-layer deposition and the deposition pressure was 0.4 Torr. For p and n layer deposition, B2H6 and PH3 was used as doping gas, respectively. The deposition temperature was $250^{\circ}C$ and the total p-i-n layer thickness was about $3500{\AA}$. In order to remove the deposited B inside of the vacuum chamber during p-layer deposition, a high pulsed RF power of about 80 W was applied right after p-layer deposition without SiH4 gas, which is followed by i-layer and n-layer deposition. Finally, Ag was deposited as top electrode. The best initial solar cell efficiency of 9.5 % for test cell area of 0.2 $cm^2$ could be achieved by applying the in-situ plasma cleaning method. The dependence on RF power and treatment time was investigated along with the SIMS analysis of the p-i interface for boron profiles.