• 한국전기전자재료학회논문지
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• 제30권6호
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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.

• 한국전기전자재료학회논문지
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• 제22권3호
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• pp.277-283
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• 2009

In this paper, aluminum doped zinc oxide (ZnO:Al) thin films on plastic substrate such as poly carbonate (PC), polyethylene terephthalate (PET) were prepared by RF magnetron sputtering method for flexible solar cell applications. Effects of the sputter pressure on the structural, electrical and optical properties were investigated. The crystallinity and the degree of the (002) orientation were deteriorated with increasing the sputter pressure. When the sputter pressure was higher, the conductivity of ZnO:Al films was improved because of the high carrier concentration and the Hall mobility. High quality ZnO:Al films with resistivity as low as $1.9{\times}10^{-3}{\Omega}-cm$ and the optical transmittance over 80 % in the visible region have been obtained on PC substrate at 2 mTorr.

• 한국표면공학회지
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• 제51권2호
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• pp.116-125
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• 2018

Aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) is a commonly used material for the front contact layer of chalcopyrite $CuInGaSe_2$ (CIGS) based thin film solar cells since it satisfies the requisite optical and electrical properties with low cost and abundant elemental availability. Low-resistivity and high-transmission front contacts have been developed for high-performance CIGS solar cells, and nearly meet the required performance. However, the durability of the cell especially for the corrosion resistance of AZO films has not been studied intensively. In this work, AZO films were prepared on Corning glass 7059 substrates by radio frequency magnetron sputtering depending on the hydrogen content. The electrical and optical properties and electrochemical corrosion resistance of the AZO films were evaluated as a function of the hydrogen content. With increasing hydrogen content to 6 wt%, the crystallinity, crystal size, and surface roughness of the films increased, and the resistivity decreased with increased carrier concentration, Hall mobility, oxygen vacancies, and $Zn(OH)_2$ binding on the AZO surface. At a hydrogen content of 6 wt%, the corrosion resistance was also relatively high with less columnar morphology, shallow pore channels, and lower grain boundary angles.

• 한국재료학회지
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• 제20권7호
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• pp.351-355
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• 2010

Transparent conducting aluminum-doped ZnO thin films were deposited using a sol-gel process. In this study, the important deposition parameters were investigated thoroughly to determine the appropriate procedures to grow large area thin films with low resistivity and high transparency at low cost for device applications. The doping concentration of aluminum was adjusted in a range from 1 to 4 mol% by controlling the precursor concentration. The annealing temperatures for the pre-heat treatment and post-heat treatment was $250^{\circ}C$ and 400-$600^{\circ}C$, respectively. The SEM images show that Al doped and undoped ZnO films were quite uniform and compact. The XRD pattern shows that the Al doped ZnO film has poorer crystallinity than the undoped films. The crystal quality of Al doped ZnO films was improved with an increase of the annealing temperature to $600^{\circ}C$. Although the structure of the aluminum doped ZnO films did not have a preferred orientation along the (002) plane, these films had high transmittance (> 87%) in the visible region. The absorption edge was observed at approximately 370 nm, and the absorption wavelength showed a blue-shift with increasing doping concentration. The ZnO films annealed at $500^{\circ}C$ showed the lowest resistivity at 1 mol% Al doping.

• 한국정보디스플레이학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국정보디스플레이학회 2005년도 International Meeting on Information Displayvol.II
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• pp.1542-1545
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• 2005

Transparent conducting aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) thin films have been deposited on corning 1737 glass by DC magnetron sputter. The structural, electrical and optical properties of the films were investigated as a function of various substrate temperatures. AZO thin films were fabricated by dc magnetron sputtering with AZO ceramic target $(Al_2O_3: 2wt %)$. The obtained films were poly crystalline with a hexagonal wurtzite structure and preferentially oriented in the (002) crystallographic direction. The lowest resistivity is $6.0{\times}10^{-4}$ Ocm with the carrier concentration of $2.694{\times}10^{20}\;cm^{-3}$ and Hall mobility of $20.426cm^2/Vs$. The average transmittance in the visible range was above 90%.

• 한국재료학회지
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• 제16권6호
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• pp.346-350
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• 2006

Al-doped ZnO (AZO) thin films were grown on type of glass#1737 substrates by DC magnetron sputtering. The structural, electrical and optical properties of the films were investigated as a function of various plasma discharge power. The obtained films were polycrystalline with a hexagonal wurtzite structure and preferentially oriented in the (002) crystallographic direction. The lowest resistivity was $6.0{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}cm$ with the carrier concentration of $2.69{\times}10^{20}cm^{-3}$ and Hall mobility of 20.43 $cm^2/Vs$. The average transmittance in the visible range was above 90%.

• 전기학회논문지
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• 제56권9호
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• pp.1596-1601
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• 2007

Aluminum doped zinc oxide (AZO) thin films were deposited on coming glass substrates using an Nd:YAG pulsed laser deposition technology. The AZO thin films were deposited with various growth conditions such as the substrate temperature and oxygen partial pressure. In this work, we used various measurement technologies in order to investigate the electrical, structural, and optical properties of the AZO thin films. Among the AZO thin films, the one prepared at the substrate temperature of $300^{\circ}C$ and oxygen partial pressure of 5 mTorr showed the best properties of an electrical resistivity of $4.63{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$, a carrier concentration of $9.25{\times}10^{20}cm^{-3}$, and a carrier mobility of $31.33cm^2/V{\cdot}s$. All the AZO thin films showed an high average optical transmittance over 90 % in visible region.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• 제1권2호
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• pp.97-102
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• 2013

Aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) thin films were prepared by dc magnetron sputtering at room temperature and the effect of heat treatment on the structural, electrical and optical properties of the films were examined. As the annealing temperature and time increased, the resistivity decreased and the transmittance improved. All AZO films had c-axis oriented (002) plane of ZnO, regardless of the annealing process employed. As the annealing temperature and time increased, the crystallinity of AZO thin films increased due to the formation of a new ZnO phase in which Al was substituted for Zn. However, at the high annealing temperature of $400^{\circ}C$, the resistivity of the films increased via separation of Zn and Al from ZnO phase due to their low melting points. X-ray diffraction, field emission scanning electron micrograph and Hall effect measurement confirmed the formation of uniformly distributed new grains of ZnO substituted with Al. The variation of Al contents in AZO films was shown to be the primary factor for the changes in resistivity and carrier concentration of the films.

• 한국진공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국진공학회 2009년도 제36회 동계학술대회 초록집
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• pp.237.2-237.2
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• 2009

• 한국산학기술학회논문지
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• 제16권2호
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• pp.1555-1562
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• 2015

금속 산화물 반도체는 독특한 전기 광학적 특성, 높은 표면적 등으로 인해 태양전지, 센서, 광소자 및 디스플레이 등 여러 분야에 걸쳐 응용되고 있다. 금속 산화물 가운데 우수한 물리 화학적 특성을 가지는 산화아연은 3.37 eV의 넓은 밴드갭 에너지와 60 meV의 큰 엑시톤 결합에너지를 갖는 n-형 반도체로서 산화아연에 양이온을 도핑하여 전기 광학적 특성을 보완하는 연구가 진행되고 있다. 본 연구는 알루미늄이 도핑 된 산화아연을 마이크로파 수열합성법으로 합성하였다. 전구체의 종류와 몰 비 등의 반응 변수를 조절하여 최적의 결정형상과 광학적 특성을 갖는 산화아연을 합성하였으며, 알루미늄을 도핑하여 광학적 특성 변화를 시도하였다. 합성된 입자는 SEM, XRD, PL, UV-Vis 분광기 및 EDS 등의 기기분석을 통해 광학적, 물리 화학적 특성을 확인하였다.