• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.439-444
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• 2024

This study investigates the post-thermal treatment effects on the efficiency of silicon heterojunction solar cells, specifically examining the influence of annealing on p-type microcrystalline silicon oxide and ITO thin films. By assessing changes in carrier concentration, mobility, resistivity, transmittance, and optical bandgap, we identified conditions that optimize these properties. Results reveal that appropriate annealing significantly enhances the fill factor and current density, leading to a notable improvement in overall solar cell efficiency. This research advances our understanding of thermal processing in silicon-based photovoltaics and provides valuable insights into the optimization of production techniques to maximize the performance of solar cells.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2001.05a
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• pp.71-71
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• 2001

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2004.05a
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• pp.27-27
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• 2004

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1996.07c
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• pp.1645-1647
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• 1996

Polycrystalline CdTe thin films -have been studied for photovoltaic application because of their high absorption coefficient and optimal band gap energy (1.54 eV) for solar energy conversion. In this study, we prepared CdTe films using RF-magnetron sputtering method and investigated structural, optical and electrical properties with spectrophotometer, XRD, EDX, and resistivity meter. CdTe films at $200\;^{\circ}C$ showed a mixture of zinc blend (Cubic) and wurtzite (hexagonal) phase. On the other hand, the films at $400\;^{\circ}C$ showed highly oriented structure having hexagonal structure. The resistivity of CdTe films deposited on $SiO_2$ substrates was about $10_7\;{\Omega}cm$. The value of resistivity decreased with the increase of the substrate temperature. CdTe were sputtered on CdS thin films prepared by chemical bath deposition for the formation of the heterojunction. I-V characteristics of these cells were measured at a light density of $100mw/cm^2$, AM. 1.0. The present thin film solar cells showed a conversion efficiency of about 5%.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.63-68
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• 2013

We investigated the effects of Au eutectic reaction on Si thin film growth by hot wire chemical vapor deposition. Small SiC and Si nano-particles fabricated through a wet etching process were coated and biased at 50 V on micro-textured Si p-n junction solar cells. Au thin film of 10 nm and a Si thin film of 100 nm were then deposited by an electron beam evaporator and hot wire chemical vapor deposition, respectively. The Si and SiC nano-particles and the Au thin film were structurally embedded in Si thin films. However, the Au thin film grew and eventually protruded from the Si thin film in the form of Au silicide nano-balls. This is attributed to the low eutectic bonding temperature ($363^{\circ}C$) of Au with Si, and the process was performed with a substrate that was pre-heated at a temperature of $450^{\circ}C$ during HWCVD. The nano-balls and structures showed various formations depending on the deposited metals and Si surface. Furthermore, the samples of Au nano-balls showed low reflectance due to surface plasmon and quantum confinement effects in a spectra range of short wavelength spectra range.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.150-155
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• 2021

Zinc oxide (ZnO) based transparent conducting oxides (TCO) thin films, are used in many applications such as solar cells, flat panel displays, and LEDs due to their wide bandgap nature and excellent electrical properties. In the present work, fluorine and aluminium-doped ZnO targets are prepared and thin films are deposited on soda-lime glass substrate using a RF magnetron sputtering unit. The aluminium concentration is fixed at 2 wt%, and the fluorine concentration is adjusted between 0 to 2.0 wt% with five different concentrations, namely, Al2ZnO98(AZO), F0.5AZO97.5(FAZO1), F1AZO97(FAZO2), F1.5AZO96.5(FAZO3), and F2AZO96(FAZO4). Thin films are deposited with an RF power of 40 W and working pressure of 5 m Torr at 270 ℃. The morphological analysis performed for the thin film reveals that surface roughness decreases in FAZO1 and FAZO2 samples when doped with a small amount of fluorine. Further, optical and electrical properties measured for FAZO1 sample show average optical transmissions of over 89 % in the visible region and 82.5 % in the infrared region, followed by low resistivity and sheet resistance of 3.59 × 10-4 Ωcm and 5.52 Ω/sq, respectively. In future, these thin films with excellent optoelectronic properties can be used for thin-film solar cell and other optoelectronics applications.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2010.05a
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• pp.11.2-11.2
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• 2010

Photovoltaic devices are promising candidates as affordable and large-area renewable energy sources, which can replace the fossil-fuel-based resources. Especially, thin film solar cells have attracted increasing research attention, since they have a great advantage of low production cost. From the physical point of view, the photovoltaic devices can provide us interesting questions, how to enhance the light absorption and the carrier collection efficiency. A lot of approaches would be possible to address these issues. We have focused on two major topics relevant to photovoltaic device physics; (1) light management using surface plasmons and (2) junction characterizations aiming at proper interface engineering. Regarding the first topic, we have investigated the influences of Ag under-layer morphology on optical properties of ZnO thin films. The experimental results suggested that coupling between the surface plasmon polaritons at the ZnO/Ag interface and excitons in ZnO should play important roles in reflectivity of the ZnO/Ag thin films, which are widely used back reflector structures in thin film solar cells. For the second topic, we have carried out scanning probe microscopy studies of Schottky junctions consisting of photovoltaic materials. Such a research is very helpful to understand the correlation between the defects (e.g., grain boundaries) and local electrical properties. We will introduce some of the recent experimental results and discuss the physical significance.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.225-230
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• 2011

CIGS solar cells are kind of thin film solar cells, which are studied several years. CdS buffer layer that makes heterojunction between window layer and absorbing layer was one of issue in the CIGS solar cell study. New types of buffer layer consisted of indium sulfide are being studied these days owing to high price and environmental harmful of CdS. In this study, we demonstrated electrochemical synthesis of indium sulfide film as a buffer layer, which is cheaper and faster than other methods. A uniform indium sulfide film was obtained by applying two different alternating potentials. The band gap of the film was optimized by controlling temperature during the electrochemical synthesis. Using x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and diffraction method we confirmed that ${\beta}$-indium sulfide was formed on ITO electrode surface.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.285-291
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• 2020

Recent advances in technology using ultra-thin noble metal film in oxide/metal/oxide structures have attracted attention because this material is a promising alternative to meet the needs of transparent conduction electrodes (TCE). AZO/Ag/AZO multilayer films are prepared by magnetron sputtering for Cu₂ZnSn(S,Se)₄ (CZTSSe) of kesterite solar cells. It is shown that the electrical and optical properties of the AZO/Ag/AZO multilayer films can be improved by the very low resistivity and surface plasmon effects due to the deposition of different thicknesses of Ag layer between oxide layers fixed at AZO 30 nm. The AZO/Ag/AZO multilayer films of Ag 15 nm show high mobility of 26.4 ㎠/Vs and low resistivity and sheet resistance of 3.58^⁎10^-5 Ωcm and 5.0 Ω/sq. Also, the AZO/Ag (15 nm)/AZO multilayer film shows relatively high transmittance of more than 65 % in the visible region. Through this, we fabricated CZTSSe thin film solar cells with 7.51 % efficiency by improving the short-circuit current density and fill factor to 27.7 mV/㎠ and 62 %, respectively.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.263-274
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• 1996

Titanium dioxide ($TiO_{2}$) film has been widely used as anti-reflection coating for solar cells but not as masking oxide for metallisation and diffusion of impurities. In this paper we have investigated the properties of $TiO_{2}$ for possible incorporation into solar cell processing sequence. Thus the use of a spray deposition system to form the $TiO_{2}$ film and the characterisation of this film to ascertain its suitability to solar cell processing. The spray-on $TiO_{2}$ film was found to be resistant to all the chemicals used in conjunction with solar cell processing. The high temperature anealing (in oxygen ambient) of the spray-on $TiO_{2}$ film resulted in an increased refractive index, which indicated the growth of an underlying thin film of $SiO_{2}$ film for the passivation of silicon surface which would reduce the recombination activities of the fabricated device. Most importantly, the successful incorporation of the $TiO{2}$ film will lead to the reduction of the many high temperature processing steps of solar cell to only one.