• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• 제35권7호
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• pp.1985-1988
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• 2014

$Cu_2ZnSnSe_4$ (CZTSe) thin films were synthesized on transparent conducting oxide glass substrates via a simple, non-toxic, and low-cost process using a precursor solution paste. A three-step heating process (oxidation, sulfurization, and selenization) was employed to synthesize a CZTSe thin film as an absorber layer for use in thin-film solar cells. In particular, we focused on the effects of sulfurization conditions on CZTSe film formation. We found that sulfurization at $400^{\circ}C$ involves the formation of secondary phases such as $CuSe_2$ and $Cu_2SnSe_3$, but they gradually disappeared when the temperature was increased. The formed CZTSe thin films showed homogenous and good crystallinity with grain sizes of approximately 600 nm. A solar cell device was tentatively fabricated and showed a power conversion efficiency of 2.2% on an active area of 0.44 $cm^2$ with an open circuit voltage of 365 mV, a short current density of 20.6 $mA/cm^2$, and a fill factor of 28.7%.

• 한국재료학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국재료학회 2010년도 춘계학술발표대회
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• pp.35.1-35.1
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• 2010

The Cu(In,Ga)Se2(CIGS) thin film solar cells have been achieved until almost 20% efficiency by NREL. These solar cells include chemically deposited CdS as buffer layer between CIGS absorber layer and ZnO window layer. Although CIGS solar cells with CdS buffer layer show excellent performance, many groups made hard efforts to overcome its disadvantages in terms of high absorption of short wavelength, Cd hazardous element. Among Cd-free candidate materials, the CIGS thin film solar cells with Zn compound buffer layer seem to be promising with 15.2%(module by showa shell K.K.), 18.6%(small area by NREL). However, few groups were successful to report high-efficiency CIGS solar cells with Zn compound buffer layer, compared to be known how to fabricate these solar cells. Each group's chemical bah deposition (CBD) condition is seriously different. It may mean that it is not fully understood to grow high quality Zn compound thin film on the CIGS using CBD. In this study, we focused to clarify growth mechanism of chemically deposited Zn compound thin film on the CIGS, especially. Additionally, we tried to characterize junction properties with unfavorable issues, that is, slow growth rate, imperfect film coverage and minimize these issues. Early works reported that film deposition rate increased with reagent concentration and film covered whole rough CIGS surface. But they did not mention well how film growth of zinc compound evolves homogeneously or heterogeneously and what kinds of defects exist within film that can cause low solar performance. We observed sufficient correlation between growth quality and concentration of NH3 as complex agent. When NH3 concentration increased, thickness of zinc compound increased with dominant heterogeneous growth for high quality film. But the large amounts of NH3 in the solution made many particles of zinc hydroxide due to hydroxide ions. The zinc hydroxides bonded weakly to the CIGS surface have been removed at rinsing after CBD.

• 한국전기전자재료학회논문지
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• 제24권9호
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• pp.755-759
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• 2011

$Cu(In_{1-x},Ga_x)Se_2$ thin films have been considered as an effective absorber material for high efficient solar cells. In this paper, the CIGS thin films with varied Ga content were prepared using a co-evaporation process of three stage. We carry out structure and electrical optical property on the thin film in varied Ga content. CIGS thin films have been characterized by X-ray diffraction(XRD), scanning electron microscopy(SEM), energy-dispersive spectroscopy(EDS), four-point probe measurement, and the Hall measurement. To optimize Ga contents, Ga/(In+Ga) ratio were changed from 0.13 to 0.72. At this time the carrier concentrations were varied from $1.22{\times}10^{11}\;cm^{-3}$ to $5.07{\times}10^{16}\;cm^{-3}$, and electrical resistivity were varied from $1.11{\times}10^0\;{\Omega}-cm$ to $1.08{\times}10^2\;{\Omega}-cm$. A strong <220/204> orientation and a lager grain size were obtained at a Ga/(In+Ga) of 0.3. We were able to achieve conversion efficiency as high as 15.95% with a Ga/(In+Ga) of 0.3.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• 제5권1호
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• pp.15-19
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• 2017

The fossil fuel power consumption generates $CO_2$, which causes the problems such as global warming. Also, the increase in energy consumption has accelerated the depletion of the fossil fuels, and renewable energy is attracting attention. Among the renewable energies, the solar energy gets a lot of attention as the infinite clean energy source. But, the supply level of solar cell is insignificant due to high cost of generation of electric power in comparison with fossil fuels. Thus several researchers are recently doing the research on ultra-low-cost solar cells. Also, $Cu_2O$ is one of the applied materials as an absorption layer in ultra-low-cost solar cells. Cuprous oxide ($Cu_2O$) is highly desirable semiconductor oxide for use in solar energy conversion due to its direct band gap ($E_g={\sim}2.1eV$) and a high absorption coefficient that absorbs visible light of wavelengths up to 650 nm. In addition, $Cu_2O$ has several advantages such as non-toxicity, low cost and can be prepared with simple and cheap methods on large scale. In this work, we fabricated the $Cu_2O$ thin films by reactive sputtering method. The films were deposited with a Cu target with variable parameters such as substrate temperature, rf-power, and annealing condition. Finally, we confirmed the structural properties of thin films by XRD and SEM.

• 한국재료학회지
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• 제30권2호
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• pp.68-73
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• 2020

Due to its favorable optical properties, Cu₂SnS₃ (CTS) is a promising material for thin film solar cells. Doping, which modifies the absorber properties, is one way to improve the conversion efficiency of CTS solar cells. In this work, CTS solar cells with selenium doping were fabricated on a flexible substrate using sputtering method and the effect of doping on the properties of CTS solar cells was investigated. In XRD analysis, a shift in the CTS peaks can be observed due to the doped selenium. XRF analysis confirmed the different ratios of Cu/Sn and (S+Se)/(Cu+Sn) depending on the amount of selenium doping. Selenium doping can help to lower the chemical potential of sulfur. This effectively reduces the point defects of CTS thin films. Overall improved electrical properties were observed in the CTS solar cell with a small amount of selenium doping, and a notable conversion efficiency of 1.02 % was achieved in the CTS solar cell doped with 1 at% of selenium.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• 제2권3호
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• pp.103-109
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• 2014

Highly efficient hydrogenated nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si:H) thin-film solar cells were prepared on flexible stainless steel substrates using plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition. To enhance the performance of solar cells, material properties of back reflectors, n-doped seed layers and wide bandgap nc-SiC:H window layers were optimized. The light scattering efficiency of Ag back reflectors was improved by increasing the surface roughness of the films deposited at elevated substrate temperatures. Using the n-doped seed layers with high crystallinity, the initial crystal growth of intrinsic nc-Si:H absorber layers was improved, resulting in the elimination of the defect-dense amorphous regions at the n/i interfaces. The nc-SiC:H window layers with high bandgap over 2.2 eV were deposited under high hydrogen dilution conditions. The vertical current flow of the films was enhanced by the formation of Si nanocrystallites in the amorphous SiC:H matrix. Under optimized conditions, a high conversion efficiency of 9.13% ($V_{oc}=0.52$, $J_{sc}=25.45mA/cm^2$, FF = 0.69) was achieved for the flexible nc-Si:H thin-film solar cells.

• 한국진공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국진공학회 2012년도 제43회 하계 정기 학술대회 초록집
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• pp.426-426
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• 2012

The CIGS absorber has outstanding advantages in the absorption coefficient and conversation efficiency. The CIGS thin film solar cells have been researched for commercialization and increasing the conversion efficiency. CIG precursors were deposited on the Mo coated glass substrate by magnetron sputtering with multilayer structure, which is CuIn/CuGa/CuIn/CuGa. Then, the metallic precursors were selenized under high Se pressure by RTP method which included. Se vapor was supplied using Se cracker cell instead of toxic hydrogen selenide gas. Se beam flux was controlled by variable reservoir zone (R-zone) temperature during selenization process. Cracked Se source reacted with CIG precursors in a small quantity of Se because of small size molecules with high activation energy. The CIGS thin films were studied by FESEM, EDX, and XRD. The CIGS solar cell was also developed by layering of CdS and ZnO layers. And the conversion efficiency of the CIGS solar cell was characterization. It was reached at 6.99% without AR layer.

• IEIE Transactions on Smart Processing and Computing
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• 제4권5호
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• pp.297-304
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• 2015

A multilayer gaseous detector has been developed for fast dose-verification measurements of raster-scan-mode therapeutic beams in particle therapy. The detector, which was constructed with eight thin parallel-plate ionization chambers (PPICs) and polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) absorber plates, is closely tissue-equivalent in a beam's eye view. The gas-electron signals, collected on the strips and pad arrays of each PPIC, were amplified and processed with a continuous charge.integration mode. The detector was tested with 190-MeV raster-scan-mode beams that were provided by the Proton Therapy Facility at Samsung Medical Center, Seoul, South Korea. The detector responses of the PPICs for a 190-MeV raster-scan-mode proton beam agreed well with the dose data, measured using a 2D ionization chamber array (Octavius model, PTW). Furthermore, in this study it was confirmed that the detector simultaneously tracked the doses induced at the PPICs by the fast-oscillating beam, with a scanning speed of 2 m s-1. Thus, it is anticipated that the present detector, composed of thin PPICs and operating in charge.integration mode, will allow medical scientists to perform reliable fast dose-verification measurements for typical dynamic mode therapeutic beams.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국신재생에너지학회 2009년도 춘계학술대회 논문집
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• pp.85-87
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• 2009

Despite the success of $Cu(In,Ga)Se_2$ (CIGS) based PV technology now emerging in several industrial initiatives, concerns about the cost of In and Ga are often expressed. It is believed that the cost of those elements will eventually limit the cost reduction of this technology. one candidate to replace CIGS is $Cu_2ZnSnSe_4$ (CZTSe), fabricated by co-evaporation technique. Effects of substrate temperature of $Cu_2ZnSnSe_4$ absorber layer on the performance of thin films solar cells were investigated. As substrate temperature increased, the grain size of $Cu_2ZnSnSe_4$ films increased presumably. At a optimal condition of substrate temperature is $320^{\circ}C$, the solar cell shows a conversion efficiency of 1.79% with $V_{OC}$ of 0.213V, JSC of $16.91mA/cm^2$ and FF of 49.7%.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제66권6호
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• pp.713-727
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• 2018

Thin-walled mental tubes under lateral crushing are desirable and reliable energy absorbers against impact or blast loads. However, the early formations of plastic hinges in the thin cylindrical wall limit the energy absorption performance. This study investigates the energy absorption performance of a simple, light and efficient energy absorber called the ring stiffened tube. Due to the increase of section modulus of tube wall and the restraining effect of the T-stiffener flange, key energy absorption parameters (peak crushing force, energy absorption and specific energy absorption) have been significantly improved against the empty tube. Its potential application in the offshore blast wall design has also been investigated. It is proposed to replace the blast wall endplates at the supports with the energy absorption devices that are made up of the ring stiffened tubes and springs. An analytical model based on beam vibration theory and virtual work theory, in which the boundary conditions at each support are simplified as a translational spring and a rotational spring, has been developed to evaluate the blast mitigation effect of the proposed design scheme. Finite element method has been applied to validate the analytical model. Comparisons of key design criterions such as panel deflection and energy absorption against the traditional design demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed design in blast alleviation.