• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.51 no.2
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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.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.32 no.12
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• pp.4332-4336
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• 2011

The chalcopyrite-type $CuInSe_2$ is a remarkable material for thin film solar cells owing to its electronic structure and optical response. Single-phase sphere-like $CuInSe_2$ nanocrystallite particles were prepared by a facile noninjection method with triethanolamine as the complexing agent and the solvent simultaneously. The period of the reaction was the key to form single-phase $CuInSe_2$ nanocrystals at $240^{\circ}C$. TEM, XRD, XPS, EDX investigations were performed to characterize the morphology and the detailed structure of as-synthesized $CuInSe_2$ nanocrystals. All of the analysis results proved that the synthesized nanocrystals were pure phase and close to the stoichiometric ratio rather than a simple mixture. The band gap of the obtained $CuInSe_2$ nanocrystals was $1.03{\pm}0.03$ eV.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2011.10a
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• pp.35.1-35.1
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• 2011

New photovoltaic (PV) materials and manufacturing approaches are needed for meeting the demand for lower-cost solar cells. The prototypal thin-film photovoltaic absorbers (CdTe and $Cu(In,Ga)Se_2$) can achieve solar conversion efficiencies of up to 20% and are now commercially available, but the presence of toxic (Cd,Se) and expensive elemental components (In, Te) is a real issue as the demand for photovoltaics rapidly increases. To overcome these limitations, there has been substantial interest in developing viable alternative materials, such as $Cu_2ZnSnS_4$ (CZTS) is an emerging solar absorber that is structurally similar to CIGS, but contains only earth abundant, non-toxic elements and has a near optimal direct band gap energy of 1.4~1.6 ev and a large absorption coefficient of ${\sim}10^4\;cm^{-1}$. The CZTS absorber layers are grown and investigated by various fabrication methods, such as thermal evaporation, e-beam evaporation with a post sulfurization, sputtering, non-vacuum sol-gel, pulsed laser, spray-pyrolysis method and electrodeposition technique. In the present work, we report an alternative method for large area deposition of CZTS thin films that is potentially high throughput and inexpensive when used to produce monolithically integrated solar panel modules. Specifically, we have developed an aqueous chemical approach based on chemical bath deposition (CBD) with a subsequent sulfurization heat treatment. Samples produced by our method were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, absorbance and photoluminescence. The results show that this inexpensive and relatively benign process produces thin films of CZTS exhibiting uniform composition, kesterite crystal structure, and good optical properties. A preliminary solar cell device was fabricated to demonstrate rectifying and photovoltaic behavior.

• 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.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.195-199
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• 2011

Mo thin films were deposited on soda lime glass at room temperature by using DC magnetron sputtering The electrical and structural properties of the films were investigated by varying DC power and gas pressure as the deposition parameter. As DC power increased, the deposition rate of Mo films was increased and the electrical resistivity was decreased. It was observable that the crystallinity of the films was improved with increasing DC power. As gas pressure decreased, the deposition rate and resistivity of the films were decreased, and long rectangular grains were densely formed. With increasing gas pressure, the grains were transformed to a round shape and the voids on the film surface were increased. It was confirmed that the electrical resistivity of Mo films was increased as the amount of oxygen combined with Mo atoms increased. It was also disclosed that the films have low resistivity as the degree of coupling of oxygen with Mo was reduced due to the enhancement of the crystallinity of the films.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.31 no.11
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• pp.619-625
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• 2021

Cu₂ZnSn(S,Se)₄ (CZTSSe) based thin-film solar cells have attracted growing attention because of their earth-abundant and non-toxic elements. However, because of their large open-circuit voltage (V_oc)-deficit, CZTSSe solar cells exhibit poor device performance compared to well-established Cu(In,Ga)(S,Se)₂ (CIGS) and CdTe based solar cells. One of the main causes of this large V_oc-deficit is poor absorber properties for example, high band tailing properties, defects, secondary phases, carrier recombination, etc. In particular, the fabrication of absorbers using physical methods results in poor surface morphology, such as pin-holes and voids. To overcome this problem and form large and homogeneous CZTSSe grains, CZTSSe based absorber layers are prepared by a sputtering technique with different RTA conditions. The temperature is varied from 510 ℃ to 540 ℃ during the rapid thermal annealing (RTA) process. Further, CZTSSe thin films are examined with X-ray diffraction, X-ray fluorescence, Raman spectroscopy, IPCE, Energy dispersive spectroscopy and Scanning electron microscopy techniques. The present work shows that Cu-based secondary phase formation can be suppressed in the CZTSSe absorber layer at an optimum RTA condition.

• Electronics and Telecommunications Trends
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.38-50
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• 2012

박막 태양전지 기술은 현재 가장 큰 시장점유율을 보이고 있는 결정질 Si 태양전지와 비교되는 차세대 태양전지 기술로서 큰 관심을 받고 있다. 결정질 Si 태양전지의 효율보다 높은 효율로서, 훨씬 저가로 생산할 수 있는 수준을 목표로 하여 다양한 종류의 박막 태양전지들이 개발되고 있는데, 본고에서는 그 중에서 가장 많이 연구개발되고 있는 세 종류의 박막 태양전지, 즉, 화합물 반도체 박막 태양전지 중 가장 대표적인 CIGS(Cu(InGa)Se2) 태양전지, 지구상에 가장 풍부한 무기 소재인 Si를 기반으로 하는 비정질 Si 박막 태양전지, 그리고 유기물 기반 태양전지 중 가장 높은 효율을 나타내는 DSSC에 대해서 중점적으로 기술하였다.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.400-400
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• 2011

조성에 따른 밴드갭 조절이 용이하고 광흡수율이 결정질, 비결정질 실리콘보다 높으며 황동광 구조를 갖는 CuIn1-xGaxSe2 계 물질은 박막형 태양전지의 광흡수층으로 널리 쓰이고 있다. 기존 동시증발법, 스퍼터링법 등 진공 공정 기반 기술이 갖는 고비용 문제와 대면적화 필요성에 대한 대안으로 비진공 박막 증착법이 활발히 연구되고 있는 가운데, 본 연구에서는 닥터블 레이드 코팅법을 이용하여 상온 및 상압 환경에서 쉽게 전구체 박막을 코팅한 후 열처리함으로써 CuInSe2 박막을 얻을 수 있었다. 고분자로 이루어진 바인더(binder) 물질과 금속 아세테이트 (metal acetate)계 전구체를 용매에 용해시킨 후 이를 도포하고, 추가적인 산화 열처리 과정 (oxidation)을 통해 최근 문제가 되고 있는 잔류탄소층 문제를 해결할 수 있었다. XRD 분석 결과, 금속 전구체들은 산화 과정 통해 금속산화물로 변환되고, 이후 셀렌화(Selenization)과정에서 산소(Oxygen)가 셀레늄(Selenium)으로 치환되는 반응이 일어나는 것으로 관찰되었다. 또한 SEM 분석을 통해 잔류 탄소층이 존재하지 않으며 결정립 크기가 최대 수백nm 정도임을 확인하였다.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.38-43
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• 2013

$Cu(In,Ga)_3Se_5$ is a candidate material for the top cell of $Cu(In,Ga)Se_2$ tandem cells. This phase is often found at the surface of the $Cu(In,Ga)Se_2$ film during $Cu(In,Ga)Se_2$ cell fabrication, and plays a positive role in $Cu(In,Ga)Se_2$ cell performance. However, the exact properties of the $Cu(In,Ga)_3Se_5$ film have not been extensively studied yet. In this work, $Cu(In,Ga)_3Se_5$ films were fabricated on Mo-coated soda-lime glass substrates by a three-stage co-evaporation process. The Cu content in the film was controlled by varying the deposition time of each stage. X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy analyses showed that, even though the stoichiometric Cu/(In+Ga) ratio is 0.25, $Cu(In,Ga)_3Se_5$ is easily formed in a wide range of Cu content as long as the Cu/(In+Ga) ratio is held below 0.5. The optical band gap of $Cu_{0.3}(In_{0.65}Ga_{0.35})_3Se_5$ composition was found to be 1.35eV. As the Cu/(In+Ga) ratio was decreased further below 0.5, the grain size became smaller and the band gap increased. Unlike the $Cu(In,Ga)Se_2$ solar cell, an external supply of Na with $Na_2S$ deposition further increased the cell efficiency of the $Cu(In,Ga)_3Se_5$ solar cell, indicating that more Na is necessary, in addition to the Na supply from the soda lime glass, to suppress deep level defects in the $Cu(In,Ga)_3Se_5$ film. The cell efficiency of $CdS/Cu(In,Ga)_3Se_5$ was improved from 8.8 to 11.2% by incorporating Na with $Na_2S$ deposition on the CIGS film. The fill factor was significantly improved by the Na incorporation, due to a decrease of deep-level defects.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.123-128
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• 2014

To realize high-performance thin film solar cells, we prepared CIGS by the co-evaporation technique on both sodalime and Corning glass substrates. The structural and efficient properties were investigated by varying the thickness of the Mo:Na layer, where the total thickness of the back contact was fixed at 1${\mu}m$. As a result, when the Mo:Na thickness was 300 nm on soda-lime glass, the measured Na content was 0.28 %, the surface morphology was a plate-like compact structure, and the crystallinity by XRD showed a strong peak of (112) preferential orientation together with relatively intense (220) and (204) peaks as the secondary phases influenced crystal formation. In addition, the substrates on soda-lime glass effected the lowest surface roughness of 2.76 nm and the highest carrier density and short circuit current. Through the optimization of the Mo:Na layer, a solar conversion efficiency of 11.34% was achieved. When using the Corning glass, a rather low conversion efficiency of 9.59% was obtained. To determine the effects of the concentration of sodium and in order to develop a highefficiency solar cells, a very small amount of sodium was added to the soda lime glass substrate.