• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.197-202
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• 2022

The CZTS solar cell is a thin film solar cell using an absorption layer composed of Cu, Zn, Sn, Se, and S, and is cheaper than a CIGS solar cell using In and Ga and more eco-friendly than a perovskite and CdTe solar cell using Pb and Cd. In this study, we conducted a bending test for flexible CZTS solar cells. Experiments were conducted in the direction of inner benidng with compressive stress and outer bending with tensile stress, and during the number of bending 1,000 times with a radius of curvature of 50 mmR, the efficiency of the solar cell decreased by up to 12.7%, and the biggest cause of efficiency reduction in both directions was a large decrease in parallel resistance.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.434-436
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• 2013

Ga-doped ZnO (GZO) was substitutes of the SnO2:F films on soda lime glass substrate in the photovoltaic devices such as CIGS, CdTe and DSSC due to good properties and low cost. However, it was reported that the electrical resistivity of GZO is unstable above $300^{\circ}C$ in air atmosphere. To improve thermal stability of GZO thin films at high temperature above $300^{\circ}C$ an $TiO_2$ thin film was deposited on the top of GZO thin films as a barrier layer by Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) method. $TiO_2$ thin films were deposited at various thicknesses from 25 nm to 100 nm. Subsequently, these films were annealed at temperature of $300^{\circ}C$, $400^{\circ}C$, $500^{\circ}C$ in air atmosphere for 20 min. The XRD measurement results showed all the films had a preferentially oriented ( 0 0 2 ) peak, and the intensity of ( 0 0 2 ) peak nearly did not change both GZO (300 nm) single layer and $TiO_2$ (50 nm)/GZO (300 nm) double layer. The resistivity of GZO (300 nm) single layer increased from $7.6{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}m$ (RT) to $7.7{\times}10^{-2}{\Omega}m$ ($500^{\circ}C$). However, in the case of the $TiO_2$ (50 nm)/GZO (300 nm) double layer, resistivity showed small change from $7.9{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}m$ (RT) to $5.2{\times}10^{-3}{\Omega}m$ ($500^{\circ}C$). Meanwhile, the average transmittance of all the films exceeded 80% in the visible spectrum, which suggests that these films will be suitable for photovoltaic devices.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.98.2-98.2
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• 2012

Thin film solar cells are growing up in the market due to their high efficiency and low cost. Especially CdTe and $CuInGaSe_2$ based solar cells are leading the other cells, but due to the limited percentage of the elements present in our earth's crust like Tellurium, Indium and Gallium, the price of the solar cells will increase rapidly. Copper Zinc Tin Sulfide (CZTS) and Copper Zinc Tin Selenide (CZTSe) semiconductor (having a kesterite crystal structure) are getting attention for its solar cell application as the absorber layer. CZTS and CZTSe have almost the same crystal structure with more environmentally friendly elements. Various authors have reported growth and characterization of CZTSe films and solar cells with efficiencies about 3.2% to 8.9%. In this study, a novel method to prepare CZTSe has been proposed based on selenization of stacked Copper Selenide ($Cu_2Se$), Tin Selenide ($SnSe_2$) and Zinc Selenide (Zinc Selenide) in six possible stacking combinations. Depositions were carried out through RF magnetron sputtering. Selenization of all the samples was performed in Close Space Sublimation (CSS) in vacuum at different temperatures for three minutes. Characterization of each sample has been performed in Field Emission SEM, XRD, Raman spectroscopy, EDS and Auger. In this study, the properties and results of $Cu_2ZnSnSe_4$ thin films grown by selenization will be presented.

• Solar Energy
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.55-65
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• 2000

Better electrical and optical properties of ITO thin films were demanded for the window layer of CdS/CdTe solar cells. To match that demand, an ion beam sputtering system was used for the deposition of ITO thin films. The substrate temperature and ion beam energy were controlled to deposit high quality ITO thin films in two cases of Ar ion sputtering and Ar+$O_2$ ion sputtering. The microstructure changed from domain structure in ITO deposited by Ar ions to grain structure in ITO deposited by Ar+$O_2$ ions. The lowest resistivity of ITO films was $1.5\times10^{-4}{\Omega}cm$ at $100^{\circ}C$ substrate temperature in case of Ar ions sputtering. Transmittance in the visible range was over 80% above $100^{\circ}C$ substrate temperature.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2010.05a
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• pp.11.1-11.1
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• 2010

As one of the non-vacuum, low temperature fabrication route, electrochemical synthesis has been focused for pursuing the cost-effective pathway to produce high efficiency photovoltaic devices. Especially the availability to form the thin film structure on flexible substrate would be the great advantage of electrochemical process. The successful synthesis of the most favorable absorber materials such as CdTe and CIGS has been reported by many researchers, however, the efficiency of electrochemically synthesized could not exceed that from vacuum process, because of microstructural controllability and compositional variation on devices. In this study, we represent the effect of process parameters on the microstructure and composition of compound semiconductor during the synthesis, and propose the photovoltaic characteristics of electrochemically synthesized solar cells.

• 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.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.93-99
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• 2011

To guarantee more exact maximum power of solar cell module, it is absolutely required to have performance characteristics of various solar cells. Today, there are many types of solar simulator for large area measurement. But it is very opaque how to select the best one for various solar cell module like crystalline silicon solar cell, high efficiency solar cell, amorphous silicon thin film solar cell, CdTe and CIGS solar cell module. So, in this paper 4 types of photovoltaic module were selected to compare the electrical characteristics by changing light pulse duration time and voltage scan direction. Light pulse duration time was varied from 10msec to 800msec. And two types of voltage scan directions, Voc->Isc and Isc->Voc were selected. From this results, optimum measuring condition was suggested and electrical variation was analysed for each types of solar cell module. The detail description is specified as the following paper.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.405-406
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• 2013

Ga-doped ZnO (GZO)는 $300^{\circ}C$ 이상의 온도에서는 전기적으로 불안정하기 때문에 CIGS, CdTe, DSC와 같은 태양전지의 높은 공정온도 때문에 사용이 제한적이다. ZTO thin film은 Al2O3, SiO2, TiO2, ZnO tihin film과 비교하여 산소 및 수분에 대하여 투과성이 상대적으로 낮은 것으로 알려져 있다. 따라서 GZO single layer에 비하여 ZTO-GZO multi-layer를 구성하여 TCO를 제작하면, 높은 공정온도에서도 사용 가능하다. 실제 제작된 GZO single layer (300 nm)에서 비저항이 $7.69{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$에서 $500^{\circ}C$에서 열처리 후 $7.76{\times}10^{-2}{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$으로 급격하게 상승한다. ZTO single layer (420 nm)는 as-grown에서는 측정 불가했지만, $400^{\circ}C$에서 열처리 후 $3.52{\times}10^{-1}{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$ $500^{\circ}C$에서 열처리 후 $4.10{\times}10^{-1}{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$으로 열처리에 따른 큰 변화가 없다. 또한 ZTO-GZO multi-layer (720 nm)의 경우 비저항이 $2.11{\times}10^{-3}{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$에서 $500^{\circ}C$에서 열처리 후 $3.67{\times}10^{-3}{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$으로 GZO에 비하여 상대적으로 변화폭이 작다. 또한 ZTO의 두께에 따른 영향을 확인하기 위하여 ZTO를 2 scan, 4 scan, 6 scan 공정 진행 및 $500^{\circ}C$에서 열처리 후 ZTO, ZTO-GZO thin film의 비저항을 측정하였다. ZTO의 경우 $3.34{\times}10^{-1}{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$ (2 scan), $3.62{\times}10^{-1}{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$ (4 scan), $4.1{\times}10^{-1}{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$ (6 scan)으로 큰 차이가 없으며, ZTO-GZO에서도 $3.73{\times}10^{-3}{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$ (2 scan), $3.42{\times}10^{-3}{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$ (4 scan), $3.67{\times}10^{-3}{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$ (6 scan)으로 큰 차이가 없음을 확인하였다. 염료감응 태양전지에 적용하여 기존에 사용되는 FTO대신에 ZTO-GZO를 사용하며, 가격적 측면, 성능적 측면에서 개선 가능할 것으로 생각된다.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.9 no.10
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• pp.451-463
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• 2009

The purpose of this research is to develop thin film materials and fabrication process for efficient $TiO_2$/CdTe solar cells. In this work photocatalyst titanium dioxide was prepared by sol-gel procedure according to reaction condition, the mole ratio of $H_2O$/TTIP, pH of solution and aging condition of powder. The prepared titanium dioxide was thermally treated from 300 to $750^{\circ}C$. Maximum intensity of anatase phase of titanium dioxide was achieved by calcination at $600^{\circ}C$ for 2 hr. And it was mixture of anatase and rutile phase when temperature of calcination was $750^{\circ}C$. It has been known that the properties of synthesized titanium dioxide according to aging time and calcination temperature was converted to anatase phase crystal on increasing of aging time. Also the current density has been increased with aging time and temperature, the efficiency has been increased with because of reason on above results. The formation of chemical bonding on oxygen and cadmium telluride under oxygen circumstances had been observed, and oxygen of thin film surface on cadmium telluride had been decreased with the treatment of chromate and hydrazine. As results had been shown that the energy conversion efficiency of cadmium telluride use by rapidly treatmented heat at the condition of $550^{\circ}C$ under air circumstance got 12.0%, 6.0% values according to $0.07cm^2$, $1.0cm^2$ surface area, respectively.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.08a
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• pp.70-70
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• 2011

The prospects of current and coming solar-photovoltaic (PV) technologies are envisioned, arguing this solar-electricity source is beyond a tipping point in the complex worldwide energy outlook. Truly, a revolution in both the technological advancements of solar PV and the deployment of this energy technology is underway; PV is no longer an outlier. The birth of modern photovoltaics (PV) traces only to the mid-1950s, with the Bell Telephone Laboratories' development of an efficient, single-crystal Si solar cell. Since then, Si has dominated the technology and the markets, from space through terrestrial applications. Recently, some significant shift toward technology diversity have taken place. Some focus of this presentation will be directed toward PV R&D and technology advances, with indications of the limitations and relative strengths of crystalline (Si and GaAs) and thin-film (a-Si:H, Si, Cu(In,Ga)(Se,S)2, CdTe). Recent advances, contributions, industry growth, and technological pathways for transformational now and near-term technologies (Si and primarily thin films) and status and forecasts for next-generation PV (nanotechnologies and non-conventional and "new-physics" approaches) are evaluated. The need for R&D accelerating the now and imminent (evolutionary) technologies balanced with work in mid-term (disruptive) approaches is highlighted. Moreover, technology progress and ownership for next generation solar PV mandates a balanced investment in research on longer-term (the revolution needs revolutionary approaches to sustain itself) technologies (quantum dots, multi-multijunctions, intermediate-band concepts, nanotubes, bio-inspired, thermophotonics, ${\ldots}$ and solar hydrogen) having high-risk, but extremely high performance and cost returns for our next generations of energy consumers. This presentation provides insights to the reasons for PV technology emergence, how these technologies have to be developed (an appreciation of the history of solar PV)-and where we can expect to be by this mid-21st century.