• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.141-153
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• 1992

Excess tritium analysis was peformed to verify whether or not cold fusion occurs during electrolysis of heavy water in the current density range of 83~600 mA/$\textrm{cm}^2$ for a period of 24 ~ 48 hours with use of palladium electrodes of seven different processing treatments and geometries. The extent of recombination of D$_2$ and $O_2$gases in the electrolytic cell was measured for the calculation of accurate enthaplpy values. The behavior and interaction of hydrogen atoms with defects in Pd electrodes were examined using the Sieverts gas charging and the positron annihilation(PA) method. Slight enrichment of tritium observed was attributed to electrolytic enrichment but not to the formation of a by-product of cold fusion. The extent of recombination of D$_2$and $O_2$gases was 32%. Hence the excess heat measured during the electrolysis was considered to be due to the exothermic reaction of recombination but not to nuclear fusion. Lifetime results from the PA measurements on the Pd electrodes indicated that hydrogen atoms could be trapped at dislocations and vacancies in the electrodes and that dislocations were slightly more preferred sites than vacancies. It was also inferred from R parameters that the formation of hydrides was accompanied by generation of mostly dislocations. Doppler broadening results of the Pd electrodes indicated that lattiec defect sites where positrons were trapped first increased and then decreased, and this cycle was repeated as electrolysis continued. It can be inferred from PA measurements on the cold-rolled Pd and the isochronally annealed Pd hydride specimens that microvoid-type defects existed in the hydrogen-charged electrode specimen.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.08a
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• pp.71-71
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• 2011

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) have drawn great academic attention due to their potential as low-cost renewable energy sources. DSCs contain a nanostructured TiO2 photoanode, which is a key-component for high conversion efficiency. Particularly, one-dimensional (1-D) nanostructured photoanodes can enhance the electron transport for the efficient collection to the conducting substrate in competition with the recombination processes. This is because photoelectron colletion is determined by trapping/detrapping events along the site of the electron traps (defects, surface states, grain boundaries, and self-trapping). Therefore, 1-D nanostructured photoanodes are advantageous for the fast electron transport due to their desirable features of greatly reduced intercrystalline contacts with specified directionality. In particular, anodic TiO2 nanotube (NT) electrodes recently have been intensively explored owing to their ideal structure for application in DSCs. Besides the enhanced electron transport properties resulted from the 1-D structure, highly ordered and vertically oriented nanostructure of anodic TiO2 NT can contribute additional merits, such as enhanced electrolyte diffusion, better interfacial contact with viscous electrolytes. First, to confirm the advantages of 1-D nanostructured material for the photoelectron collection, we compared the electron transport and charge recombination characteristics between nanoparticle (NP)- and nanorod (NR)-based photoanodes in DSCs by the stepped light-induced transient measurements of photocurrent and voltage (SLIM-PCV). We confirmed that the electron lifetime of the NR-based photoanode was much longer than that of the NP-based photoanode. In addition, highly ordered and vertically oriented TiO2 NT photoanodes were prepared by electrochemical anodization method. We compared the photovoltaic properties of DSCs utilizing TiO2 NT photoanodes prepared by one-step anodization and two-step anodization. And, to reduce the charge recombination rate, energy barrier layer (ZnO, Al2O3)-coated TiO2 NTs also applied in DSC. Furthermore, we applied the TiO2 NT photoanode in DSCs using a viscous electrolyte, i.e., cobalt bipyridyl redox electrolyte, and confirmed that the pore structure of NT array can enhance the performances of this viscous electrolyte.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.31-41
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• 2016

n-type PERT (passivated emitter, rear totally diffused) bifacial solar cells with boron and phosphorus diffusion as p+ emitter and n+ BSF (back surface field) have attracted significant research interest recently. In this work, the influences of wafer thickness, bulk lifetime, emitter, BSF on the photovoltaic characteristics of solar cells are discussed. The performance of the solar cell is determined by using one-dimensional solar cell simulation software PC1D. The simulation results show that the key role of the BSF is to decrease the surface doping concentration reducing the recombination and thus, increasing the cell efficiency. A lightly phosphorus doped BSF (LD BSF) was experimentally optimized to get low surface dopant concentration for n type bifacial solar cells. Pre-oxidation combined with a multi-plateau drive-in, using limited source diffusion was carried out before pre-deposition. It could reduce the surface dopant concentration with minimal impact on the sheet resistance.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.431-435
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• 2002

The dark current and photocurrent(PC) spectrum of Mg-doped GaN thin film were investigated with various bias voltages and temperatures. At high temperature and small bias, the dark current is dominated by holes thermally activated from an acceptor level Al located at about 0.16 eV above the valence band maximum $(E_v)$, The PC peak originates from the electron transition from deep level A2 located at about 0.34 eV above the $E_v$ to the conduction band minimum $(E_ C)$. However, at a large bias voltage, holes thermally activated from A2 to Al experience the field-in-duces tunneling to form one-dimensional defect band at Al, which determines the dark current. The PC peak associated with the transition from Al to $E_ C$ is also observed at large bias voltages owing to the extended recombination lifetime of holes by the tunneling. In the near infrared region, a strong PC peak at 1.20 eV appears due to the hole transition from deep donor/acceptor level to the valence band.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1998.07d
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• pp.1361-1363
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• 1998

Poly-Si grain boundaries act as potential barriers as well as recombination centers for the photo-generated carriers in solar cells. Thereby, grain boundaries of poly-Si are considered as a major source of the poly-Si cell efficiency was reduced This paper investigated grain boundary effect of poly-Si wafer prior to the solar cell fabrication. By comparing I-V characteristics inner grain, on and across the grain boundary, we were able to detect grain potentials. To reduce grain boundary effect we carried out pretreatment, $POCl_3$ gettering, and examined carrier lifetime. This paper focuses on resistivity variation effect due to grain boundary of poly-Si. The resistivity of the inner grain was $2.2{\Omega}-cm$, on the grain boundary$2.3{\Omega}-cm$, across the grain boundary $2.6{\Omega}-cm$. A measured resistivity varied depending on how many grains were included inside the four point probes. The resistivity increased as the number of grain boundaries increased. Our result can contribute to achieve high conversion efficiency of poly-Si solar cell by overcoming the grain boundary influence.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2002.04b
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• pp.57-60
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• 2002

In generally, the guest-emitter doped system has been reported to give a bright electroluminescence(EL). The purpose of using doped system is to improve for increasing lifetime and efficiency, and tuning multicolor light. This indicates an enhanced electron-hole recombination rate in emitting layer. The purpose of this study is to obtain the high performance EL devices for flat panel display with red emission. We fabricated EL devices using the guest-host system. where DCM derivatives were taken as a dopant. The devices are fabricated in multilayer system with various concentration of the dopant (red light emitting dye). We measured the I-V characteristics and EL spectra from these devices. and we compared with photoluminescence(PL) quantum yield among the DCM derivatives. The emission mechanism of devices is participated in energy transfer. The energy transfer from these hosts to DCM generates luminescence spectra that vary from yellow red to red, depending on DCM derivatives. Absorption and emission spectra of organic materials composing the devices depend on the emission materials doped with the DCM derivatives. We demonstrated that the high EL efficiency can be achieved by doping host material with DCM derivatives and molecular steric structures

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.24-34
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• 2012

The main issue of boron doped p-type czochralski-grown silicon solar cells is the degradation when they are exposed to light or minority carriers injection. This is due to the meta-stable defect such as boron-oxygen in the Cz-Si material. Although a clear explanation is still researching, recent investigations have revealed that the Cz-Si defect is related with the boron and the oxygen concentration. They also revealed how these defects act a recombination centers in solar cells using density function theory (DFT) calculation. This paper reviews the physical understanding and gives an overview of the degradation models. Therefore, various methods for avoiding the light-induced degradation in Cz-Si solar cells are compared in this paper.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.209-215
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• 2017

Fast neutron irradiation was used to improve the switching speed of a 600-V nonpunch-through insulated gate bipolar transistor. Fast neutron irradiation was carried out at 30-MeV energy in doses of $1{\times}10^8n/cm^2$, $1{\times}10^9n/cm^2$, $1{\times}10^{10}n/cm^2$, and $1{\times}10^{11}n/cm^2$. Electrical characteristics such as current-voltage, forward on-state voltage drop, and switching speed of the device were analyzed and compared with those prior to irradiation. The on-state voltage drop of the initial devices prior to irradiation was 2.08 V, which increased to 2.10 V, 2.20 V, 2.3 V, and 2.4 V, respectively, depending on the irradiation dose. This effect arises because of the lattice defects generated by the fast neutrons. In particular, the turnoff delay time was reduced to 92 nanoseconds, 45% of that prior to irradiation, which means there is a substantial improvement in the switching speed of the device.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.86-90
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• 2018

To generate more current in crystalline silicon solar cells, surface texturing is adopted by reducing the surface reflection. Conventionally, random pyramid texturing by the wet chemical process is used for surface texturing in crystalline silicon solar cell. To achieve higher efficiency of solar cells, well ordered inverted pyramid texturing was introduced. Although its complicated process, superior properties such as lower reflectance and recombination velocity can be achieved by optimizing the process. In this study, we investigated optical and passivation properties of inverted pyramid texture. Lifetime, implied-Voc and reflectance were measured with different width and size of the texture. Also, effects of chemical rounding at the valley of the pyramid were observed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.02a
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• pp.122-122
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• 2010

ZnO is a widely investigated material for the blue and ultraviolet solid-state emitters and detectors. It has been promoted due to a wide-band gap semiconductor which has large exciton binding energy of 60 meV, chemical stability and low radiation damage. However, there are many problems to be solved for the growth of p-type ZnO for practical device applications. Many researchers have made an efforts to achieve p-type conductivity using group-V element of N, P, As, and Sb. In this letter, we have studied the optical characteristics of the antimony-doped ZnO (ZnO:Sb) thin films by means of photoluminescence (PL), PL excitation, temperature-dependent PL, and time-resolved PL techniques. We observed donor-to-acceptor-pair transition at about 3.24 eV with its phonon replicas with a periodic spacing of about 72 meV in the PL spectra of antimony-doped ZnO (ZnO:Sb) thin films at 12 K. We also investigate thermal activation energy and carrier recombination lifetime for the samples. Our result reflects that the antimony doping can generate shallow acceptor states, leading to a good p-type conductivity in ZnO.