• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.52 no.1
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• pp.1-5
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• 2019

Anodic oxidized $TiO_2$ nanotube arrays are promising materials for application in photoelectrochemical solar cells as the photoanode, because of their attractive properties including slow electron recombination rate, superior light scattering, and smooth electrolyte diffusion. However, because of the opacity of these nanotube electrodes, the back-side illumination is inevitable for the application in solar cells. Therefore, for the fabrication of solar cells with the anodic oxidized nanotube electrodes, it is required to develop efficient and transparent counter electrodes. Here, we demonstrate quantum dot-sensitized solar cells (QDSCs) based on the nanotube photoanode and transparent counter electrodes. The transparent counter electrodes based on Pt electrocatalysts were prepared by a simple thermal decomposition methods. The photovoltaic performances of QDSCs with nanotube photoanode were tested and optimized depending on the concentration of Pt precursor solutions for the preparation of counter electrodes.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.74-80
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• 2018

Recently, perovskite solar cells have shown tremendous improvement in power conversion efficiencies. Moreover, they have potential in semitransparent solar cell applications due to their high absorption coefficients. In order to fabricate semitransparent perovskite solar cells with good performance, it is essential to consider the suitability of transparent electrode materials in various aspects, such as transparency, conductivity and fabrication process. In this review, candidate materials for transparent electrodes in perovskite solar cells including carbon-based nanomaterials, conductive polymers and metallic nanostructures are discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.401-405
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• 2017

Because silicon thin film solar cells have a high absorption coefficient in visible light, they can absorb 90% of the solar spectrum in a $1-{\mu}m$-thick layer. Silicon thin film solar cells also have high transparency and are lightweight. Therefore, they can be used for building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) systems. However, the contact electrode needs to be replaced for fabricating silicon thin film solar cells in BIPV systems, because most of the silicon thin film solar cells use metal electrodes that have a high reflectivity and low transmittance. In this study, we replace the conventional aluminum top electrode with a transparent aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) electrode, the band level of which matches well with that of the intrinsic layer of the silicon thin film solar cell and has high transmittance. We show that the AZO effectively replaces the top metal electrode and the bottom fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) substrate without a noticeable degradation of the photovoltaic characteristics.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.387.1-387.1
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• 2016

Transparent materials are necessary for most photoelectric devices, which allow the light generation from electric energy or vice versa. Metal oxides are usual materials for transparent conductors to have high optical transmittance with good electrical properties. Functional designs may apply in various applications, including solar cells, photodetectors, and transparent heaters. Nanoscale structures are effective to drive the incident light into light-absorbing semiconductor layer to improve solar cell performances. Recently, the new metal oxide materials have inaugurated functional device applications. Nickel oxide (NiO) is the strong p-type metal oxide and has been applied for all transparent metal oxide photodetector by combining with n-type ZnO. The abrupt p-NiO/n-ZnO heterojunction device has a high transmittance of 90% for visible light but absorbs almost entire UV wavelength light to show the record fastest photoresponse time of 24 ms. For other applications, NiO has been applied for solar cells and transparent heaters to induce the enhanced performances due to its optical and electrical benefits. We discuss the high possibility of metal oxides for current and future transparent electronic applications.

• Ceramist
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.146-169
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• 2019

To overcome the theoretical efficiency of single-junction solar cells (> 30 %), tandem solar cells (or multi-junction solar cells) is considered as a strong nominee because of their excellent light utilization. Organic-inorganic halide perovskite has been regarded as a promising candidate material for next-generation tandem solar cell due to not only their excellent optoelectronic properties but also their bandgap-tune-ability and low-temperature process-possibility. As a result, they have been adopted either as a wide-bandgap top cell combined with narrow-bandgap silicon or CuIn_xGa_(1-x)Se₂ bottom cells or for all-perovskite tandem solar cells using narrow- and wide-bandgap perovskites. To successfully transition perovskite materials from for single junction to tandem, substantial efforts need to focus on fabricating the high quality wide- and narrow-bandgap perovskite materials and semi-transparent electrode/recombination layer. In this paper, we present an overview of the current research and our outlook regarding perovskite-based tandem solar technology. Several key challenges discussed are: 1) a wide-bandgap perovskite for top-cell in multi-junction tandem solar cells; 2) a narrow-bandgap perovskite for bottom-cell in all-perovskite tandem solar cells, and 3) suitable semi-transparent conducting layer for efficient electrode or recombination layer in tandem solar cells.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.209-209
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• 2012

High-efficient transparent conductive oxide (TCO) film-embedding Si heterojunction solar cells were fabricated. An additional doping was not applied for heterojunction solar cells due to the spontaneous junction formation between TCO films and an n-type Si substrate. Three different TCO coatings were formed by sputtering method for an Al-doped ZnO (AZO) film, an indium-tin-oxide (ITO) film and double stacks of ITO/AZO films. An improved crystalline ITO film was grown on an AZO template upon hetero-epitaxial growth. This double TCO films-embedding Si heterojunction solar cell provided significantly enhanced efficiency of 9.23% as compared to the single TCO/Si devices. The effective arrangement of TCO films (ITO/AZO) provides benefits of a lower front contact resistance and a smaller band offset to Si leading enhanced photovoltaic performances. This demonstrates a potential scheme of the effective TCO film-embedding heterojunction Si solar cells.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.120-123
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• 2020

Transparent photovoltaics (PV) are used in various applications such as building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV). However, crystalline silicon (c-Si) is not used for developing transparent PV due to its opaque nature. Here. we fabficate the three holes in 6-inch c-Si solar cells using laser scribing process with an opening area ratio of about 6.8% for transparent c-Si solar modules. Moreover, we make the shingled strings using the perforated cells. Our 7 interconnected shingled string PV cells with 21 holes show a solar to power conversion of 5.721 W. In next work, we will fabricate a transparent c-Si PV module with perforated strings.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.135-139
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• 2017

We fabricated two different transparent conducting oxide thin films of ZnO doped with Ga ($Ga_2O_3$ 0.9 wt%) as well as Al ($Al_2O_3$ 2.1 wt%) (GAZO) and ZnO doped only with Al ($Al_2O_3$ 3 wt%) (AZO). It was investigated how it affects the moisture resistance of the transparent electrode. In addition, $Cu(In,Ga)Se_2$ thin film solar cells with two transparent oxides as front electrodes were fabricated, and the correlation between humidity resistance of transparent electrodes and device performance of solar cells was examined. When both transparent electrodes were exposed to high temperature distilled water, they showed a rapid increase in sheet resistance and a decrease in the fill factor of the solar cell. However, AZO showed a drastic decrease in efficiency at the beginning of exposure, while GAZO showed that the deterioration of efficiency occurred over a long period of time and that the long term moisture resistance of GAZO was better.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.11a
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• pp.47.2-47.2
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• 2011

High-efficient transparent conductive oxide (TCO) film-embedding Si heterojunction solar cells were fabricated. An improved crystalline indium-tin-oxide (ITO) film was grown on an Al-doped ZnO (AZO) template upon hetero-epitaxial growth. This double TCO-layered Si solar cell provided significantly enhanced efficiency of 9.23 % as compared to the single TCO/Si devices. The effective arrangement of TCO films (ITO/AZO) provides a good interface, resulting in the enhanced photovoltaic performances. It discusses TCO film arrangement scheme for efficient TCO-layered heterojunction solar cells.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2015.08a
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• pp.87.2-87.2
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• 2015

Transparent conductors are commonly used in photoelectric devices, where the electric energy converts to light energy or vice versa. Energy consumption devices, such as LEDs, Displays, Lighting devices use the electrical energy to generate light by carrier recombination. Meanwhile, solar cell is the only device to generate electric energy from the incident photon. Most photoelectric devices require a transparent electrode to pass the light in or out from a device. Beyond the passive role, transparent conductors can be employed to form Schottky junction or heterojunction to establish a rectifying current flow. Transparent conductor-embedded heterojunction device provides significant advantages of transparent electrode formation, no need for intentional doping process, and enhanced light-reactive surface area. Herein, we present versatile applications of transparent conductors, such as NiO, ZnO, ITO in photoelectric devices of solar cells and photodetectors for high-performing UV or IR detection. Moreover, we also introduce the growth of transparent ITO nanowires by sputtering methods for large scale application.