• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.251-255
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• 2021

a-Si is commonly considered as a primary candidate for the formation of passivation layer in heterojunction (HIT) solar cells. However, there are some problems when using this material such as significant losses due to recombination and parasitic absorption. To reduce these problems, a wide bandgap material is needed. A wide bandgap has a positive influence on effective transmittance, reduction of the parasitic absorption, and prevention of unnecessary epitaxial growth. In this paper, the adoption of a-SiO_x:H as the intrinsic layer was discussed. To increase lifetime and conductivity, oxygen concentration control is crucial because it is correlated with the thickness, bonding defect, interface density (D_it), and band offset. A thick oxygen-rich layer causes the lifetime and the implied open-circuit voltage to drop. Furthermore the thicker the layer gets, the more free hydrogen atoms are etched in thin films, which worsens the passivation quality and the efficiency of solar cells. Previous studies revealed that the lifetime and the implied voltage decreased when the a-SiOx thickness went beyond around 9 nm. In addition to this, oxygen acted as a defect in the intrinsic layer. The D_it increased up to an oxygen rate on the order of 8%. Beyond 8%, the D_it was constant. By controlling the oxygen concentration properly and achieving a thin layer, high-efficiency HIT solar cells can be fabricated.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.603-609
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• 2022

Passivation quality is mainly governed by epitaxial growth of crystalline silicon wafer surface. Void-rich intrinsic a-Si:H interfacial layer could offer higher resistivity of the c-Si surface and hence a better device efficiency as well. To reduce the resistivity of the contact area, a modification of void-rich intrinsic layer of a-Si:H towards more ordered state with a higher density is adopted by adapting its thickness and reducing its series resistance significantly, but it slightly decreases passivation quality. Higher resistance is not dominated by asymmetric effects like different band offsets for electrons or holes. In this study, multilayer of intrinsic a-Si:H layers were used. The first one with a void-rich was a-Si:H(I₁) and the next one a-SiO_x:H(I₂) were used, where a-SiO_x:H(I₂) had relatively larger band gap of ~2.07 eV than that of a-Si:H (I₁). Using a-SiO_x:H as I₂ layer was expected to increase transparency, which could lead to an easy carrier transport. Also, higher implied voltage than the conventional structure was expected. This means that the a-SiO_x:H could be a promising material for a high-quality passivation of c-Si. In addition, the i-a-SiO_x:H microstructure can help the carrier transportation through tunneling and thermal emission.

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.10-13
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• 2023

High-T_C superconductivity (HTSC) has been the central issue in the field of condensed matter physics for decades. An essential part of the research on superconductivity is finding new exotic superconductors. It was recently suggested that Ir-substituted La_0.7Sr_0.3MnO₃ (LSMIO) is a new high-T_C superconductor. However, systematic studies to experimentally verify the superconductivity have not been done. Here, we report the growth processes of LSMIO thin films and their electrical transport properties. We observed a clear negative correlation between the intensity of the laser utilized for film deposition and the Curie temperature of the deposited film. We attributed this effect to the suppression of Sr concentration in the LSMIO films as the laser intensity increased. However, our LSMIO films show conventional ferromagnetism instead of HTSC. To realize the HTSC in LSMIO systems, further exploration of diverse compositions of LSMIO compounds is essential.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.11 no.8
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• pp.641-646
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• 2001

The $CoSi_2$ layers have been in-situ grown on undoped poly-Si by the reactive chemical vapor deposition of $Co({\Eta}^5-C_5H_5)(CO)_2$ at $650^{\circ}C$ and their thermal stabilities have been investigated in the temperature range of 800 to $1000^{\circ}C$. The $CoSi_2$ layer grown by the in-situ method had grains with large area of (111) plane, while grains with little area of (111) plane appeared on the $CoSi_2$ layer grown by the conventional two-step method where $CoSi_2$ formed first and transformed to $CoSi_2$. The thermal stability of the $CoSi_2$ layer grown by the in- situ process was improved by more than $100^{\circ}C$ higher than that of the $CoSi_2$ layer grown by the conventional two-step process. The $CoSi_2$ layer grown in situ on a large-grained Poly-Si was stable up to $950^{\circ}C$. The effect of stability improvement by the in situ growth was more pronounced when the grain sizes of the poly-Si substrate were small. The improved thermal stability of the in-situ grown $CoSi_2$ layer could be mainly due to the formation of a uniform $CoSi_2$ layer with the $CoSi_2$ grains, which are in the form of epitaxial-like growth on the each poly-Si grains, causing a reduction of the interfacial energy of the system.

• Proceedings of the Korean Ceranic Society Conference
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.1-112
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• 2005

This report is results of a research on recent R&D trends in electroceramics, mainly focusing on the papers submitted to the organizing committee of the International Conference on Electroceramics 2005 (ICE-2005) which was held at Seoul on 12-15 June 2005. About 380 electroceramics researchers attended at the ICE-2005 from 17 countries including Korea, presenting and discussing their recent results. Therefore, we can easily understand the recent research trends in the field of electroceramics by analyses of the subject and contents of the submitted papers. In addition to the analyses of the papers submitted to the ICE-2005, we also collected some informations about domestic and international research trends to help readers understand this report easily. We analysed the R&D trends on the basis of four main categories, that is, informatics electroceramics, energy and environment ceramics, processing and characterization of electroceramics, and emerging fields of electroceramics. Each main category has several sub-categories again. The informatics ceramics category includes integrated dielectrics and ferroelectrics, oxide and nitride semiconductors, photonic and optoelectronic devices, multilayer electronic ceramics and devices, microwave dielectrics and high frequency devices, and piezoelectric and MEMS applications. The energy and environment ceramics category has four sub-categories, that is, rechargable battery, hydrogen storage, fuel cells, and advanced energy conversion concepts. In the processing and characterization category, there exist domain, strain, and epitaxial dynamics and engineering sub-category, innovative processing and synthesis sub-category, nanostructured materials and nanotechnology sub- category, single crystal growth and characterization sub-category, theory and modeling sub-category. Nanocrystalline electroceramics, electroceramics for smart sensors, and bioceramics sub-categories are included to the emerging fields category. We hope that this report give an opportunity to understand the international research trend, not only to Korean ceramics researchers but also to science and technology policy researchers.