• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.106.1-106.1
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• 2011

The Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) thin film solar cells have been achieved until almost 20% efficiency by NREL. These solar cells include chemically deposited CdS as buffer layer between CIGS absorber layer and ZnO window layer. Although CIGS solar cells with CdS buffer layer show excellent performance, the short wavelength response of CIGS solar cell is limited by narrow CdS band gap of about 2.42 eV. Taking into consideration the environmental aspect, the toxic Cd element should be replaced by a different material. Among Cd-free candidate materials, the CIGS thin film solar cells with ZnS buffer layer seem to be promising with 17.2%(module by showa shell K.K.), 18.6%(small area by NREL). However, ZnS/CIGS solar cells still show lower performance than CdS/CIGS solar cells. There are several reported reasons to reduce the efficiency of ZnS/CIGS solar cells. Nakada reported ZnS thin film had many defects such as stacking faults, pin-holes, so that crytallinity of ZnS thin film is poor, compared to CdS thin film. Additionally, it was known that the hetero-interface between ZnS and CIGS layer made unfavorable band alignment. The unfavorable band alignment hinders electron transport at the heteo-interface. In this study, we focused on growing defect-free ZnS thin film and for favorable band alignment of ZnS/CIGS, bandgap of ZnS and CIGS, valece band structure of ZnS/CIGS were modified. Finally, we verified the photovoltaic properties of ZnS/CIGS solar cells.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.164-164
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• 2013

Among multicomponent nanostructures, hybrid nanocatalysts consisting of metal nanoparticle-semiconductor junctions offer an interesting platform to study the role of metal-oxide interfaces and hot electron flows in heterogeneous catalysis. In this study, we report that hot carriers generated upon photon absorption significantly impact the catalytic activity of CO oxidation. We found that Pt-CdSe-Pt nanodumbbells exhibited a higher turnover frequency by a factor of two during irradiation by light with energy higher than the bandgap of CdSe, while the turnover rate on bare Pt nanoparticles didn't depend on light irradiation. We also found that Pt nanoparticles deposited on a GaN substrate under light irradiation exhibit changes in catalytic activity of CO oxidation that depends on the type of doping of the GaN. We suppose that hot electrons are generated upon the absorption of photons by the semiconducting nanorods or substrates, whereafter the hot electrons are injected into the Pt nanoparticles, resulting in the change in catalytic activity. We discuss the possible mechanism for how hot carrier flows generated during light irradiation affect the catalytic activity of CO oxidation.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.32 no.9
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• pp.3453-3458
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• 2011

The $Mg_xZn_{1-x}O$ thin films with the various content ratio ranging from 0 to 0.4 were prepared by sol-gel spincoating method. To investigate the effects of content ratio on the structural and optical properties of the $Mg_xZn_{1-x}O$ thin films, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and photoluminescence (PL) were carried out. With increase in the content ratio, the grain size of the $Mg_xZn_{1-x}O$ thin films was increased, however, at the content ratio above 0.2, MgO particles with cubic structure were formed on the surface of the $Mg_xZn_{1-x}O$ thin films, indicating that the Mg content exceeded its solubility limit in the thin films. The residual stress of the $Mg_xZn_{1-x}O$ thin films is increased with increase in the Mg mole fraction. In the PL investigations, the bandgap and the activation energy of the $Mg_xZn_{1-x}O$ thin films was increased with the Mg mole fraction.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.120-120
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• 2008

We demonstrate epitaxial growth of ZnO thin films on 4H-SiC(0001) substrates using pulsed laser deposition (PLD). ZnO and SiC have attracted attention for their special material properties as wide band gap semiconductors. Especially, ZnO could be applied to optoelectronic applications such as light emitting devices and photo detectors due to its direct wide bandgap (Eg) of ~3.37eV and large exciton binding energy of ~60meV. SiC shows a good lattice matching to ZnO compared with other commonly used substrates and in this regard SiC is a good candidate as a substrate for ZnO. In this work, ZnO thin films were grown on 4H-SiC(0001) substrates by PLD using an Nd:YAG laser with a 355nm wavelength. The crystalline properties of the films were evaluated by x-ray diffraction (XRD) $\theta-2\theta$, rocking curve and pole figure measurements using a high-resolution diffractometer. The surface morphology of the films was studied by atomic force microscopy (AFM).

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.356.1-356.1
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• 2014

The Isolation of few-layered transition metal dichalcogenides has mainly been performed by mechanical and chemical exfoliation with very low yields. in particular, the two-dimensional layer of molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) has recently attracted much interest due to its direct-gap property and potential application in optoelectronics and energy harvesting. However, the synthetic approach to obtain high-quality and large-area MoS2 atomic thin layers is still rare. In this account, a controlled thermal reduction-sulfurization method is used to synthesize large-MoOx thin films are first deposited on Si/SiO2 substrates, which are then sulfurized (under vacuum) at high temperatures. Samples with different thicknesses have been analyzed by Raman spectroscopy and TEM, and their photoluminescence properties have been evaluated. We demonstrated the presence of mono-, bi-, and few-layered MoS2 on as-grown samples. It is well known that the electronic structure of these materials is very sensitive to the number of layer, ranging from indirect band gap semiconductor in the bulk phase to direct band gap semiconductor in monolayers. This synthetic approach is simple, scalable, and applicable to other transition metal dichalcogenides. Meanwhile, the obtained MoS2 films are transferable to arbitrary substrates, providing great opportunities to make layered composites by stacking various atomically thin layers.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.398.1-398.1
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• 2014

The $Cu_2ZnSnSe_4$ (CZTSe) thin films solar cell is one of the next generation candidates for photovoltaic materials as the absorber of thin film solar cells because it has optimal bandgap (Eg=1.0eV) and high absorption coefficient of $10^4cm^{-1}$ in the visible length region. More importantly, CZTSe consists of abundant and non-toxic elements, so researches on CZTSe thin film solar cells have been increasing significantly in recent years. CZTSe thin film has very similar structure and properties with the CIGS thin film by substituting In with Zn and Ga with Sn. In this study, As-deposited CZTSe thin films have been deposited onto soda lime glass (SLG) substrates at different deposition condition using Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) technique without post-annealing process. The effects of deposition conditions (deposition time, deposition temperature) onto the structural, compositional and optical properties of CZTSe thin films have been investigated, without experiencing selenization process. The XRD pattern shows that quaternary CZTSe films with a stannite single phase. The existence of (112), (204), (312), (008), (316) peaks indicates all films grew and crystallized as a stannite-type structure, which is in a good agreement with the diffraction pattern of CZTSe single crystal. All the films were observed to be polycrystalline in nature with a high (112) predominant orientation at $2{\theta}{\sim}26.8^{\circ}$. The carrier concentration, mobility, resistivity and optical band gap of CZTSe thin films depending on the deposition conditions. Average energy band gap of the CZTSe thin films is about 1.3 eV.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.203-203
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• 2014

Due to the electrical properties such as narrow bandgap and high carrier mobility, indium antimonide (InSb) has attracted a lot of attention recently. For the fabrication of electronic or photonic devices, an etching process is required. However, during etching process, enegetic ions can induce structural damages on the bombarded surface. Especially, InSb has a very weak binding energy between In atom and Sb stom, it can be easily damaged by impingement of ions. In the previous work, to evaluate the surface properties after Ar ion beam etching, the plasma-induced structural damage on the etched InSb(100) surface had been examined by resonant Raman spectroscopy. As a result, we demonstrated the relation between the enhanced transverse optical(TO) peak in the Raman spectrum and the ion-induced structral damage near the InSb surface. In this work, the annealing effect on the etched InSb(100) surface has investigated. Annealing process was performed at $450^{\circ}C$ for 10 minute under antimony ambient. As-etched InSb(100) surface had shown a strongly enhanced TO scattering intensity in the Raman spectrum. However, the annealing process with antimony flowing caused the intensity to recover due to the structural reordering and the reduction of antimony vacancies. It proves that the origin of enhanced TO scattering is Sb vacancies. Furthermore, it shows that etching-induced damage can be cured effectively by the following annealing process under Sb ambient.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.304-308
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• 2013

The effect of a sputter deposition sequence of Cu, Zn, and Sn metal layers on the properties of $Cu_2ZnSnS_4$ (CZTS) was systematically studied for solar cell applications. The set of Cu/Sn/Zn/Cu multi metal films was deposited on a Mo/$SiO_2$/Si wafer using dc sputtering. CZTS films were prepared through a sulfurization process of the Cu/Sn/Zn/Cu metal layers at $500^{\circ}C$ in a $H_2S$ gas environment. $H_2S$ (0.1%) gas of 200 standard cubic centimeters per minute was supplied in the cold-wall sulfurization reactor. The metal film prepared by one-cycle deposition of Cu(360 nm)/Sn(400 nm)/Zn(400 nm)/Cu(440 nm) had a relatively rough surface due to a well-developed columnar structure growth. A dense and smooth metal surface was achieved for two- or three-cycle deposition of Cu/Sn/Zn/Cu, in which each metal layer thickness was decreased to 200 nm. Moreover, the three-cycle deposition sample showed the best CZTS kesterite structures after 5 hr sulfurization treatment. The two- and three-cycle Cu/Sn/Zn/Cu samples showed high-efficient photoluminescence (PL) spectra after a 3 hr sulfurization treatment, wheres the one-cycle sample yielded poor PL efficiency. The PL spectra of the three-cycle sample showed a broad peak in the range of 700-1000 nm, peaked at 870 nm (1.425 eV). This result is in good agreement with the reported bandgap energy of CZTS.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.299-307
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• 2019

Photocatalysis is an environment friendly technique for degrading organic dyes in water. Tungsten oxide is becoming an active area of research in photocatalysis nanomaterials for having a smaller bandgap than the previously favored titanium dioxide. Synthesis of hierarchical structures, doping platinum (Pt), coupling with nanocomposites or other semiconductors are investigated as valid methods of improving the photocatalytic degradation efficiency. These impact the reaction by creating a redshift in the wavelength of light used, effecting charge transfer, and the formation/recombination of electron-hole pairs. Each of the methods mentioned above are investigated in terms of synthesis and photocatalytic efficiency, with the simplest being modification on the morphology of tungsten oxide, since it does not need synthesis of other materials, and the most efficient in photocatalytic degradation being complex coupling of metal oxides and carbon composites. The photocatalysis technology can be incorporated with water purification membrane by modularization process and applied to advanced water treatment system.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.126-132
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• 2018

SnS thin films with different substrate temperatures ($150 {\sim}300^{\circ}C$) as process parameters were grown on soda-lime glass substrates by RF magnetron sputtering. The effects of substrate temperature on the structural and optical properties of SnS thin films were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy (Raman), field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and Ultraviolet-visible-near infrared spectrophotometer (UV-Vis-NIR). All of the SnS thin films prepared at various substrate temperatures were polycrystalline orthorhombic structures with (111) planes preferentially oriented. The diffraction intensity of the (111) plane and the crystallite size were improved with increasing substrate temperature. The three major peaks (189, 222, $289cm^{-1}$) identified in Raman were exactly the same as the Raman spectra of monocrystalline SnS. From the XRD and Raman results, it was confirmed that all of the SnS thin films were formed into a single SnS phase without impurity phases such as $SnS_2$ and $Sn_2S_3$. In the optical transmittance spectrum, the critical wavelength of the absorption edge shifted to the long wavelength region as the substrate temperature increased. The optical bandgap was 1.67 eV at the substrate temperature of $150^{\circ}C$, 1.57 eV at $200^{\circ}C$, 1.50 eV at $250^{\circ}C$, and 1.44 eV at $300^{\circ}C$.