• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.25 no.10
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• pp.811-816
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• 2012

The effect of co-sputtering condition on the structural properties of $Mg_xZn_{1-x}O$ thin films grown by RF magnetron co-sputtering system was investigated for manufacturing ZnO/MgZnO structure LED. $Mg_xZn_{1-x}O$ thin films were grown with ZnO and MgO target varying RF power. Structural properties were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). The ZnO thin films have sufficient crystallinity on the high RF power. As RF power of ZnO target increased, the contents of MgO in the $Mg_xZn_{1-x}O$ film decreased. LED was manufactured using ZnO/MgZnO multi-layer on p-GaN/$Al_2O_3$ substrate. Threshold voltage of multi-layer LED was appeared at 8 V, and it was luminesced at wave length of 550 nm.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.491-496
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• 2011

Al-doped ZnO film on glass substrate is deposited by ALD in low temperature, using 4-step process (DEZ-$H_2O$-TMA-$H_2O$). To find out the optimal film condition for TCO material, we fabricate Al-doped ZnO films by increasing Al doping concentration at $100^{\circ}C$, so that the Al-doped film of 5 at% shows the lowest resistivity ($1.057{\times}10^{-2}{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$) and the largest grain size (38.047 nm). Afterwards, the electrical and physical characteristics in Al-doped films of 5 at% are also compared in accordance with increasing deposition temperature. All the films show the optical transmittance over 80% and the film deposited at $250^{\circ}C$ demonstrates the superior resistivity ($1.237{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$).

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.31-36
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• 2006

Superstrate pin amorphous silicon thin-film(a-Si:H) solar cells are prepared on $SnO_2:F$ and ZnO:Al transparent conducting oxides(TCO) in order to see the effect of TCO/p-layers on a-Si:H solar cell operation. The solar cells prepared on textured ZnO:Al have higher open circuit voltage VOC than cells prepared on $SnO_2:F$. Presence of thin microcrystalline p-type silicon layer(${\mu}c-Si:H$) between ZnO:Al and p a-SiC:H plays a major role by causing improvement in fill factor as well as $V_{OC}$ of a-Si:H solar cells prepared on ZnO:Al TCO. Without any treatment of pi interface, we could obtain high $V_{OC}$ of 994mV while keeping fill factor(72.7%) and short circuit current density $J_{SC}$ at the same level as for the cells on $SnO_2:F$ TCO. This high $V_{OC}$ value can be attributed to modification in the current transport in this region due to creation of a potential barrier.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.06a
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• pp.158-161
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• 2006

Superstrate pin amorphous silicon thin-film (a-Si:H) solar cells are prepared on $SnO_2:F$ and ZnO:Al transparent conducting oxides (TCO) In order to see the effect of TCO/P-layers on a-Si:H solar cell operation. The solar cells prepared on textured ZnO:Al have higher open circuit voltage $V_{oc}$ than cells prepared on $SnO_2:F$. Presence of thin microcrystalline p-type silicon layer $({\mu}c-Si:H)$ between ZnO:Al and p a-SiC:H plays a major role by causing improvement in fill factor as well as $V_{oc}$, of a-Si:H solar cells prepared on ZnO:Al TCO. Without any treatment of pi interface, we could obtain high $V_{oc}$, of 994mv while keeping fill factor (72.7%) and short circuit current density $J_{sc}$ at the same level as for the cells on $SnO_2:F$ TCO. This high $V_{oc}$ value can be attributed to modification in the current transport in this region due to creation of a potential barrier.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.94-101
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• 2023

Zinc oxide(ZnO) is a semiconductor material with a bandgap of 3.37 eV and an exciton binding energy of 60 meV for various applications. Recently ZnO has been proven to enhance its electrical properties for utilization as an alternative for transparent conducting oxide (TCO) materials. In this study, cation(Al, Ga)-anion(F) single and double doped ZnO thin films were grown by atomic layer deposition (ALD) to enhance the electrical properties. The structural and optical properties of doped ZnO thin films were analyzed, and doping effects were confirmed to electrical characteristics. In single doped ZnO, it was observed that the carrier concentration was increased after doping, acting as a donor to ZnO. Among the single doping elements, F doped ZnO(FZO) showed the highest mobility and conductivity due to the passivation effect of oxygen vacancies. In the case of double doping, higher electrical characteristics were observed compared to single doping. Among the samples, Al-F doped ZnO(AFZO) exhibited the lowest resistance value. This results can be attributed to an increase in delocalized electron states and a decrease in lattice distortion resulting from the differences in ionic radius. The partial density of states(PDOS) was also analyzed and observed to be consistent with the experimental results.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2008.06a
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• pp.419-420
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• 2008

In this study, high quality (Al,N)-codoped p-type ZnO thin films were obtained by DC magnetron sputtering. The film on buffer layer grown in 80% $N_2$ ambient shows highest hole concentration of $2.93\times10^{17}cm^{-3}$. The films show hole concentration in the range of $1.5\times10^{15}$ to $2.93\times10^{17}cm^{-3}$, resistivity of 131.2 to 2.864 $\Omega$cm, mobility of 3.99 to 31.6 $cm^2V^{-1}s^{-1}$. The films on Si show easier p-doping in ZnO than those on buffer layer. The film on Si shows the highest quality of optical photoluminescence (PL) characteristics. The donor energy level $(E_d)$ of (Al,N)-codoped ZnO films is about 50 meV and acceptor energy level $(E_a)$ is in the range of 63 to 71 meV. It will help to improve p-type ZnO films.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.688-688
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• 2013

Al-doped ZnO (AZO) thin films have attracted a lot of attention as a cheap transparent conducting oxide (TCO) material that can replace the expensive Sn-doped In2O3. In particular, AZO thin films are widely used as a window layer of chalcogenide-based thin film solar cells such as Cu(In,Ga)Se2 and Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS). Mostly important requirements for the window layer material of the thin film solar cells are the high transparency and the low sheet resistance, because they influence the light absorption by the activelayer and the electron collection from the active layer, respectively. In this study, we prepared the AZO thin films by RF magnetron sputtering using a ZnO/Al2O3 (98：2wt%) ceramic target, and the effect of the sputtering condition such as the working pressure, RF power, and the working distance on the optical, electrical, and crystallographic properties of the AZO thin films was investigated. The AZO thin films with optimized properties were used as a window layer of CZTS thin film solar cells. The CZTS active layers were prepared by the electrochemical deposition and the subsequent sulfurization process, which is also one of the cost-effective synthetic approaches. In addition, the solar cell properties of the CZTS thin film solar cells, such as the photocurrent density-voltage (J-V) characteristics and the external quantum efficiency (EQE) were investigated.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.221-229
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• 2022

To understand effects of cooling rates of coating layer on microstructures and corrosion behaviors of hot-dip alloy coated steel sheets (Zn-5%Al-2%Mg) in a neutral aqueous condition with chloride ion, a range of experimental and analytical methods were used in this study. Results showed that a faster cooling rate during solidification decreased the fraction of primary Zn, and increased the fraction of Zn-Al phase. In addition, interlamellar spacing became refined under a faster cooling rate. These modifications of the coating structure had higher open circuit potentials (OCP) with smaller anodic and cathodic current densities in the electrochemical potentiodynamic polarization. Surface analyses after a salt spray test showed that the increase in the Zn-Al phase in the coating formed under a faster cooling rate might have contributed to the formation of simonkolleite (Zn₅(OH)₈Cl₂·H₂O) and hydrotalcite (ZnAl₂(OH)₆Cl₂·H₂O) with a protective nature on the corroded outer surface, thus delaying the formation of red rust.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.235-240
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• 2010

We investigated the carbon monoxide (CO) gas-sensing properties of nanostructured Al-doped zinc oxide thin films deposited on self-assembled Au nanodots (ZnO/Au thin films). The Al-doped ZnO thin film was deposited onto the structure by rf sputtering, resulting in a gas-sensing element comprising a ZnO-based active layer with an embedded Pt/Ti electrode covered by the self-assembled Au nanodots. Prior to the growth of the active ZnO layer, the Au nanodots were formed via annealing a thin Au layer with a thickness of 2 nm at a moderate temperature of $500^{\circ}C$. It was found that the ZnO/Au nanostructured thin film gas sensors showed a high maximum sensitivity to CO gas at $250^{\circ}C$ and a low CO detection limit of 5 ppm in dry air. Furthermore, the ZnO/Au thin film CO gas sensors exhibited fast response and recovery behaviors. The observed excellent CO gas-sensing properties of the nanostructured ZnO/Au thin films can be ascribed to the Au nanodots, acting as both a nucleation layer for the formation of the ZnO nanostructure and a catalyst in the CO surface reaction. These results suggest that the ZnO thin films deposited on self-assembled Au nanodots are promising for practical high-performance CO gas sensors.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Illuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers
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• v.22 no.11
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• pp.36-43
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• 2008

In this parer aluminium-doped zinc oxide(ZnO:Al) conducting layer was deposited on polyethylene terephthalate(PET) substrate by r. f. magnetron sputtering method. The effects of gas pressure and r. f. sputtering power on the structural and electrical properties of ZnO:Al thin film were investigated experimentally. Especially the effect of position of PET substrate on the electrical properties of the film was studied and fixed to improve the electrical properties and also to increase the deposition rate. The results show that the structural and electrical properties of ZnO:Al thin film were strongly influenced by the gas pressure and sputtering power. The minimum resistivity of $1.1{\times}10^{-3}[{\Omega}-cm]$ was obtained at 5[mTorr] of gas pressure, and 18D[W] of sputtering power. The deposition rate of ZnO:Al film at 5[mTorr] of gas pressure was 248[nm/min]. and is higher by around 3 times compared to that at 25[mTorr].