• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.111-119
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• 2018

We report the post-annealing effect of Sn doped ZnO (ZnO:Sn) thin film grown on sapphire (001) substrate using radio-frequency powder sputtering method. During thermal annealing in a vacuum atmosphere, the ZnO:Sn thin film is transformed into a porous thin film. Based on X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and energy dispersive X-ray analyses, a possible mechanism for the production of pores is presented. Sn atoms segregate to form clusters that act as catalysts to dissociate Zn-O bonds. The Zn and O atoms subsequently vaporize, leading to the formation of pores in the ZnO:Sn thin film. We also found that Sn clusters were oxidized to form SnO or $SnO_2$ phases.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.334-334
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• 2012

Transparent oxide semiconductors have recently attracted much attention as channel layer materials due to advantageous electrical and optical characteristics such as high mobility, high stability, and good transparency. In addition, transparent oxide semiconductor can be fabricated at low temperature with a low production cost and it permits highly uniform devices such as large area displays. A variety of thin film transistors (TFTs) have been studied including ZnO, InZnO, and InGaZnO as the channel layer. Recently, there are many studies for substitution of Ga in InGaZnO TFTs due to their problem, such as stability of devices. In this work, new quaternary compound materials, tantalum-indium-tin oxide (TaInSnO) thin films were fabricated by using co-sputtering and used for the active channel layer in thin film transistors (TFTs). We deposited TaInSnO films in a mixed gas (O2+Ar) atmosphere by co-sputtering from Ta and ITO targets, respectively. The electric characteristics of TaInSnO TFTs and thin films were investigated according to the RF power applied to the $Ta_2O_5$ target. The addition of Ta elements could suppress the formation of oxygen vacancies because of the stronger oxidation tendency of Ta relative to that of In or Sn. Therefore the free carrier density decreased with increasing RF power of $Ta_2O_5$ in TaInSnO thin film. The optimized characteristics of TaInSnO TFT showed an on/off current ratio of $1.4{\times}108$, a threshold voltage of 2.91 V, a field-effect mobility of 2.37 cm2/Vs, and a subthreshold swing of 0.48 V/dec.

• 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.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.61-68
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• 2019

Well aligned $SnO_2$-doped ZnO nanorods were prepared by single step or 2-step electrochemical depositions in a mixture solution of zinc nitrate hexahydrate, ammonium hydroxide solution and 0.1 M tin chloride pentahydrate. The morphologies of electrochemically deposited $SnO_2$-doped ZnO were transformed from plain (or network) structures at low reduction potential to needles on hills at high reduction potential. Well aligned ZnO was prepared at intermediate potential ranges. Reduction reagent and a high concentration of Zn precursor were required to fabricate $SnO_2$ doped ZnO nanorods. When compared to results obtained by single step electrochemical deposition, 2-step electrochemical deposition produced a much higher density of nanorods, which was ascribed to less potential being required for nucleation of nanorods by the second-step electrochemical deposition because the surface was activated in the first-step. Mechanisms of $SnO_2$ doped ZnO nanorods prepared at single step or 2-step was described in terms of applied potential ranges and mass-/charge- limited transfer.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.18-21
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• 2014

Because the Pb-based piezoelectric materials showed problems such as an environmental pollution. lead-free $O_3$ materials were studied in the present study. The $O_3$ thin films were deposited at $640^{\circ}C$ on $Pt/Ti/SiO_2$ substrate by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) and were annealed for 5 min at $750^{\circ}C$ using rapid thermal annealing (RTA) in nitrogen atmosphere. Samples annealed at $750^{\circ}C$ showed a smooth morphology and an improvement of the dielectric and leakage properties, as compared with as-grown samples. However, electrical properties of the $O_3$ thin films obtained in the present study should be improved for piezoelectric applications.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.49 no.6
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• pp.663-668
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• 2012

In order to reduce the indium contents in transparent conducting oxide(TCO) thin films of $In_{1.6{\sim}1.8}Zn_{0.2}Sn_{0.2{\sim}0.4}O_3$ (IZTO), $In_{1.6}Zn_{0.2}Sn_{0.2}O_{3-{\delta}}$(IZTO) was prepared by replacing indium with Zn and Sn. The TCO films were deposited via RF-magnetron sputtering of the IZTO target at various deposition temperatures and its film characteristics were investigated. When deposited in an Ar atmosphere at $400^{\circ}C$, the electrical resistivity of the film decreased to $6.34{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$ and the optical transmittance was 80%. As the deposition temperature increased, the crystallinity of the IZTO film was enhanced. As a result, the electrical conductivity and transmittance properties were improved. This demonstrates the possibility of replacing ITO TCO film with IZTO.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.76-79
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• 2011

In order to improve efficiency and make a new material thin film, we prepared the Al-In-Sn-ZnO thin film on a glass substrate at room temperature using a Facing Target Sputtering (FTS) system. The FTS system was designed to array two targets that face each other. Two different kinds of targets were installed on the FTS system. We used an ITO ($In_2O_3$ 90wt%, $SnO_2$ 10wt%) target and an AZO (ZnO 98wt%, $Al_2O_3$ 2wt%) target. The AIZTO films were deposited using different applied powers to the targets. The as-deposited AIZTO thin films were investigated using a UV/VIS spectrometer, an X-ray diffratometer (XRD), and Energy Dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX).

• Proceedings of the Korean Society Of Semiconductor Equipment Technology
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• 2006.10a
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• pp.68-71
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• 2006

Multi-component $ZnO-In_2O_3-SnO_2$ thin films have been prepared by RF magnetron co-sputtering using targets composed of $In_3Sn_4O_{12}$(99.99%) [1] and ZnO(99.99%) at room temperature. $In_3Sn_4O_{12}$ contains less In than commercial ITO, so that it lowers cost. Working pressure was held at 3 mtorr flowing Ar gas 20 sccm and sputtering time was 30 min. RF power ratio [RF1 / (RFI + RF2)] of two guns in sputtering system was varied from 0 to 1. Each RF power was varied $0{\sim}100W$ respectively. The thickness of the films was $350{\sim}650nm$. The composit ion concentrations of the each film were measured with EPMA, AES and XPS. The low resistivity of $1-2\;{\times}\;10^3$ and an average transmittance above 80% in the visible range were attained for the films over a range of ${\delta}\;(0.3\;{\leq}\;{\delta}\;{\leq}\;0.5)$. The films also showed a high chemical stability with time and a good uniformity.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.336-336
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• 2013

Zinc oxide (ZnO) based transparent oxide semiconductors have been studied due to their high transmittance and electrical conductivity. Pure ZnO have unstable optical and electrical properties at high temperatures but doped ZnO thin films can have stable optical and electrical properties. In this paper, transparent oxide semiconductors of Y-doped ZnO thin films prepared by sol-gel method. The ionic radius of $Y^{3+}$ (0.90 A) is close to that of $Zn^{2+}$ (0.74 A), which makes Y suitable dopant for ZnO thin films. The Sn-doped ZnO thin films were deposited onto quartz substrates with different atomic percentages of dopant which were Y/Zn = 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 at.%. These thin films were pre-heated at $150^{\circ}C$ for 10 min and then annealed at $500^{\circ}C$ or 1 h. The structural and optical properties of the Y-doped ZnO thin films were investigated using field-emission scanning electronmicroscopy (FE-SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV-visible spectroscopy, and photoluminescence (PL).

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.30 no.10
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• pp.566-572
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• 2020

In the recent years, thin film solar cells (TFSCs) have emerged as a viable replacement for crystalline silicon solar cells and offer a variety of choices, particularly in terms of synthesis processes and substrates (rigid or flexible, metal or insulator). Among the thin-film absorber materials, SnS has great potential for the manufacturing of low-cost TFSCs due to its suitable optical and electrical properties, non-toxic nature, and earth abundancy. However, the efficiency of SnS-based solar cells is found to be in the range of 1 ~ 4 % and remains far below those of CdTe-, CIGS-, and CZTSSe-based TFSCs. Aside from the improvement in the physical properties of absorber layer, enormous efforts have been focused on the development of suitable buffer layer for SnS-based solar cells. Herein, we investigate the device performance of SnS-based TFSCs by introducing double buffer layers, in which CdS is applied as first buffer layer and ZnMgO films is employed as second buffer layer. The effect of the composition ratio (Mg/(Mg+Zn)) of RF sputtered ZnMgO films on the device performance is studied. The structural and optical properties of ZnMgO films with various Mg/(Mg+Zn) ratios are also analyzed systemically. The fabricated SnS-based TFSCs with device structure of SLG/Mo/SnS/CdS/ZnMgO/AZO/Al exhibit a highest cell efficiency of 1.84 % along with open-circuit voltage of 0.302 V, short-circuit current density of 13.55 mA cm^-2, and fill factor of 0.45 with an optimum Mg/(Mg + Zn) ratio of 0.02.