• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.97-100
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• 2015

The kesterite $Cu_2ZnSnSe_4$ (CZTSe) thin film solar cells were synthesized by selenization of sputtered Cu/Sn/Zn metallic precursors on Mo coated soda lime glass substrate in Ar atmosphere. Cu/Sn/Zn metallic precursors were deposited by DC magnetron sputtering process with 30 W power at room temperature. As-deposited metallic precursors were placed in a graphite box with Se pellets and selenized using rapid thermal processing furnace at various temperature ($480^{\circ}C{\sim}560^{\circ}C$) without using a toxic $H_2Se$ gas. Effects of Selenization temperature on the morphological, crystallinity, electrical properties and cell efficiency were investigated by field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD), J-V measurement system and solar simulator. Further details about effects of selenization temperature on CZTSe thin films will be discussed.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.21-26
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• 2018

Beside several advantages, the PV power generation as a clean energy source, is still below the supply level due to high power generation cost. Therefore, the interest in fabricating low-cost thin film solar cells is increasing continuously. $Cu_2O$, a low cost photovoltaic material, has a wide direct band gap of ~2.1 eV has along with the high theoretical energy conversion efficiency of about 20%. On the other hand, it has other benefits such as earth-abundance, low cost, non-toxic, high carrier mobility ($100cm^2/Vs$). In spite of these various advantages, the efficiency of $Cu_2O$ based solar cells is still significantly lower than the theoretical limit as reported in several literatures. One of the reasons behind the low efficiency of $Cu_2O$ solar cells can be the formation of CuO layer due to atmospheric surface oxidation of $Cu_2O$ absorber layer. In this work, atomic layer deposition method was used to remove the CuO layer that formed on $Cu_2O$ surface. First, $Cu_2O$ absorber layer was deposited by electrodeposition. On top of it buffer (ZnO) and TCO (AZO) layers were deposited by atomic layer deposition and rf-magnetron sputtering respectively. We fabricated the cells with a change in the deposition temperature of buffer layer ranging between $80^{\circ}C$ to $140^{\circ}C$. Finally, we compared the performance of fabricated solar cells, and studied the influence of buffer layer deposition temperature on $Cu_2O$ based solar cells by J-V and XPS measurements.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.08a
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• pp.376-376
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• 2011

I-III-VI2 chalcopyrite compounds, particularly copper, indium, gallium selenide(Cu(InxGa1-x)Se2, CIGS), are effective light-absorbing materials in thin-film solar application. They are direct band-gap semiconductors with correspondingly high optical absorption coefficients. Also they are stable under long-term excitation. CIS (CIGS) solar cell reached conversion efficiencies as high as 19.5%. Several methods to prepare CIS (CIGS) absorber films have been reported, such as co-evaporation, sputtering, selenization, and electrodeposition. Until now, co-evaporation is the most successful technique for the preparation of CIS (CIGS) in terms of solar efficiency, but it seems difficult to scale up. CIS solar cells have been hindered by high costs associated with a fabrication process. Therefore, inorganic colloidal ink suitable for a scalable coating process could be a key step in the development of low-cost solar cells. Here, we will present the preparation of CIS photo absorption layer by a solution process using novel metal precursors. Chalcopyrite copper indium diselenide (CuInSe2) nanocrystals ranging from 5 to 20nm in diameter were synthesized by arrested precipitation in solution. For the fabrication of CIS photo absorption layer, the CuInSe2 colloidal ink was prepared by dispersing in organic solvent and used to drop-casting on molybdenum substrate. We have characterized the nanoparticless and CIS layer by XRD, SEM, TEM, and ICP.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.114-118
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• 2016

$Cu_{1.8}Zn_{1.2}(Sn_{1-x}Ge_x)S_4$ (CZTGeS) nanocrystals were mechanochemically synthesized from elemental precursor powders without using any organic solvents and any additives. The composition of CZTGeS nanocrystals were systematically varied with different Ge mole fraction (x) from 0.1 to 0.9. The XRD, Raman spectroscopy, high-resolution TEM, and diffuse reflectance studies show that the as-synthesized CZTGeS nanocrystals exhibited consistent changes in various structural and optical properties as a function of x, such as lattice parameters, wave numbers for $A_1$ Raman vibration mode, interplanar distances (d-spacing), and optical bandgap energies. The bandgap energy of the synthesized CZTGeS nanocrystals gradually increases from 1.40 to 1.61 eV with increasing x from 0.1 to 0.9, demonstrating that Ge-doping is useful means to tune the bandgap of mechanochemically synthesized nanocrystals-based kesterite thin-film solar cells. The preliminary solar cell performance is presented with an efficiency of 3.66%.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.31 no.7
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• pp.437-442
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• 2018

This work reports the preparation of Al-Ti based oxide thin films and their optical properties. Although the transmittance of a $TiO_2/Al2O_3$ bilayer structure was as high as 90% at wavelengths of 600 nm or larger, the reflectance of the bilayer reached its minimum at wavelengths of around 360 nm. The transmittance of an 89-nm-thick $TiO_2$ thin film rapidly increased and then decreased at a critical wavelength because of destructive interference. The wavelength corresponding to the reflectance minimum increased after an increase in $TiO_2$ film thickness. The smooth surface morphology of the AlTiO thin film was retained up to a film thickness of 65 nm, and the transmittance of the film was inversely proportional to film thickness, in accordance with the general tendency for optical films. The reflectance of the AlTiO film at visible light wavelengths was lower than that of the $TiO_2$ film, which implies that the AlTiO film is suitable for applications as an optical thin film layer in semitransparent solar cells.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.36-41
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• 2023

We investigated the properties of vanadium oxide (VOx) buffer layers deposited by a dual RF magnetron sputtering method under various target powers for inverted organic solar cells (IOSCs). Sputter fabricatged VOx thin films exhibited higher crystallinity with the increase of target power, resulting in a uniform and large grain size. The electrical properties of VOx films are improved with the increase of target power because of the increase of V content. In the results, the performance of IOSCs critically depended on the target power during the film growth because the crystalllinity of the VOx film affects the carrier mobility of the VOx film.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.05a
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• pp.438-440
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• 2008

Effects of Ga contents of CIGS absorber layer on the performance of thin films solar cells were investigated. As Ga content increased, the grain size of CIGS films decreased presumably because Ga diffusion during 2nd stage of co-evaporation process is more difficult than In diffusion. Performances of corresponding solar cell show systematic dependence on Ga content in which open circuit voltage increases and short circuit current and fill factor decrease as Ga contents increases. At a optimal condition of Ga/(In+Ga)=0.27, the solar cell shows a conversion efficiency of 15.6% with $V_{OC}$ of 0.625 V, $J_{SC}$ of 35.03 mA/$cm^2$ and FF of 71.3%.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.204-210
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• 2020

ZnO thin films are of considerable interest because they can be customized by various coating technologies to have high electrical conductivity and high visible light transmittance. Therefore, ZnO thin films can be applied to various optoelectronic device applications such as transparent conducting thin films, solar cells and displays. In this study, ZnO rod and thin films are fabricated using aqueous chemical bath deposition (CBD), which is a low-cost method at low temperatures, and environmentally friendly. To investigate the structural, electrical and optical properties of ZnO for the presence of citrate ion, which can significantly affect crystal form of ZnO, various amounts of the citrate ion are added to the aqueous CBD ZnO reaction bath. As a result, ZnO crystals show a nanorod form without citrate, but a continuous thin film when citrate is above a certain concentration. In addition, as the citrate concentration increases, the electrical conductivity of the ZnO thin films increases, and is almost unchanged above a certain citrate concentration. Cu(In,Ga)Se₂ (CIGS) solar cell substrates are used to evaluate whether aqueous CBD ZnO thin films can be applicable to real devices. The performance of aqueous CBD ZnO thin films shows performance similar to that of a sputter-deposited ZnO:Al thin film as top transparent electrodes of CIGS solar cells.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.106-110
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• 2014

The passivation property of $Al_2O_3$ thin film formed using atomic layer deposition (ALD) for the application of crystalline Si solar cells was investigated using microwave photoconductance decay (${\mu}$-PCD). After post-annealing at $400^{\circ}C$ for 5 min, $Al_2O_3$ thin film exhibited the structural stability having amorphous nature without the interfacial reaction between $Al_2O_3$ and Si. The post-annealing at $400^{\circ}C$ for 5 min led to an increase in the relative effective lifetime of $Al_2O_3$ thin film. This could be associated with the field effective passivation combined with surface passivation of textured Si. The capacitance-voltage (C-V) characteristics of the metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) with $Al_2O_3$ thin film post-annealed at $400^{\circ}C$ for 5 min was carried out to evaluate the negative fixed charge of $Al_2O_3$ thin film. From the relationship between flatband voltage ($V_{FB}$) and equivalent oxide thickness (EOT), which were extracted from C-V characteristics, the negative fixed charge of $Al_2O_3$ thin film was calculated to be $2.5{\times}10^{12}cm^{-2}$, of which value was applicable to the passivation layer of n-type crystalline Si solar cells.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.260-262
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• 2005

Thickness optimization of heavily doped p-type seeding layer was studied to improve performance of thin film silicon solar cell. We used liquid phase epitaxy (LPE) to grow active layer of $25{\mu}m$ thickness on $p^+$ seeding layer. The cells with $p^+$ seeding layer of $10{\mu}m\;to\;50{\mu}m$ thickness were fabricated. The highest efficiency of a cell is 12.95%, with $V_{oc}=633mV,\;J_{sc}=26.5mA/cm^2$, FF = 77.15%. The $p^+$ seeding layer of the cell is $20{\mu}m$ thick. As thicker seeding layer than $20{\mu}m$, the performance of the cell was degraded. The results demonstrate that the part of the recombination current is due to the heavily doped seeding layer. Thickness of heavily doped p-type seeding layer was optimized to $20{\mu}m$. The performance of solar cell is expected to improve with the incorporation of light trapping as texturing and AR coating.