• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.471.2-471.2
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• 2014

We demonstrate here that an improvement in precursor film density (green density) leads to a great enhancement in the photovoltaic performance of CuInSe2 (CISe) thin film solar cells fabricated with Cu-In nanoparticle precursor films via chemical solution deposition. A cold-isostatic pressing (CIP) technique was applied to uniformly compress the precursor film over the entire surface (measuring 3~4 cm2) and was found to increase its relative density (particle packing density) by ca. 20%, which resulted in an appreciable improvement in the microstructural features of the sintered CISe film in terms of lower porosity, reduced grain boundaries, and a more uniform surface morphology. The low-bandgap (Eg=1.0 eV) CISe PV devices with the CIP-treated film exhibited greatly enhanced open-circuit voltage (VOC, from 0.265 V to 0.413 V) and fill factor (FF, from 0.34 to 0.55), as compared to the control devices. As a consequence, an almost 3-fold increase in the average power conversion efficiency, 3.0 to 8.2% (with the highest value of 9.02%), was realized without an anti-reflection coating. A diode analysis revealed that the enhanced VOC and FF were essentially attributed to the reduced reverse saturation current density (j0) and diode ideality factor (n). This is associated with the suppressed recombination, likely due to the reduction in recombination sites such as grain/air surfaces (pores), inter-granular interfaces, and defective CISe/CdS junctions in the CIP-treated device. From the temperature dependences of VOC, it was confirmed that the CIP-treated devices suffer less from interface recombination.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.105-106
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• 2013

Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) is classified into the propagating surface plasmon (PSP) excited on flat metal surfaces and the local surface plasmon (LSP) excited by metalnanoparticles. It is known that fluorescence signals are enhanced by these two SPR-fields.On the other hand, fluorescence is quenched by the energy transfer to metal (FRET). Bothphenomena are controlled by the distance between dyes and metals, and the degree offluorescence enhancement is determined by the correlation. In this study, we determined thecondition to achieve the maximum fluorescence enhancement by adjusting the distance of ametal nanoparticle 2D sheet and a quantum dots 2D sheet by the use of $SiO_2$ spacer layers. The 2D sheets consisting of myristate-capped Ag nanoparticles (AgMy nanosheets) wereprepared at the air-water interface and transferred onto hydrophobized gold thin films basedon the Langmuir-Schaefer (LS) method [1]. The $SiO_2$ sputtered films with different thickness (0~100 nm) were deposited on the AgMy nanosheet as an insulator. TOPO-cappedCdSe/CdZnS/ZnS quantum dots (QDs, ${\lambda}Ex=638nm$) [2] were also transferred onto the $SiO_2$ films by the LS method. The layered structure is schematically shown in Fig. 1. The result of fluorescence measurement is shown in Fig. 2. Without the $SiO_2$ layer, the fluorescence intensity of the layered QD film was lower than that of the original QDs layer, i.e., the quenching by FRET was predominant. When the $SiO_2$ thickness was increased, the fluorescence intensity of the layered QD film was higher than that of the original QDs layer, i.e., the SPR enhancement was predominant. The fluorescence intensity was maximal at the $SiO_2$ thickness of 20 nm, particularly when the LSPR absorption wavelength (${\lambda}=480nm$) was utilized for the excitation. This plasmonic nanosheet can be integrated intogreen or bio-devices as the creation point ofenhanced LSPR field.

• Clean Technology
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.27-33
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• 2017

In this study, toxicities of seven metals (Cu, Cd, Cr, As(III), As(V), Zn, Ni) and five metal oxide nanoparticles (NPs: CuO, ZnO, NiO, $TiO_2$, $Fe_2O_3$) were evaluated based on the growth of Chlorella vulgaris. Effect on algae growth was evaluated by integrating the results of absorption, chlorophyll content, and cell count. The toxicity rankings of metals was observed as Cr ($0.7mgL^{-1}$) > Cu ($1.7mgL^{-1}$) > Cd ($3.2mgL^{-1}$) > Zn ($3.9mgL^{-1}$) > Ni ($13.2mgL^{-1}$) > As(III) ($17.8mgL^{-1}$) ${\gg}$ As(V) (> $1000mgL^{-1}$). Slightly different orders and sensitivities of metal toxicity were examined depending on endpoints of algal growth. In case of NPs, regardless of endpoints, similar toxicity rankings of NPs ($TEC_{50}$) were observed, showing ZnO ($2.4mgL^{-1}$) > NiO ($21.1mgL^{-1}$) > CuO ($36.6mgL^{-1}$) > $TiO_2$ ($62.5mgL^{-1}$) > $Fe_2O_3$ ($82.7mgL^{-1}$). These results indicate that an integrating results of endpoints might be an effective strategy for the assessment of contaminants.