• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.688-688
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• 2013

Al-doped ZnO (AZO) thin films have attracted a lot of attention as a cheap transparent conducting oxide (TCO) material that can replace the expensive Sn-doped In2O3. In particular, AZO thin films are widely used as a window layer of chalcogenide-based thin film solar cells such as Cu(In,Ga)Se2 and Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS). Mostly important requirements for the window layer material of the thin film solar cells are the high transparency and the low sheet resistance, because they influence the light absorption by the activelayer and the electron collection from the active layer, respectively. In this study, we prepared the AZO thin films by RF magnetron sputtering using a ZnO/Al2O3 (98：2wt%) ceramic target, and the effect of the sputtering condition such as the working pressure, RF power, and the working distance on the optical, electrical, and crystallographic properties of the AZO thin films was investigated. The AZO thin films with optimized properties were used as a window layer of CZTS thin film solar cells. The CZTS active layers were prepared by the electrochemical deposition and the subsequent sulfurization process, which is also one of the cost-effective synthetic approaches. In addition, the solar cell properties of the CZTS thin film solar cells, such as the photocurrent density-voltage (J-V) characteristics and the external quantum efficiency (EQE) were investigated.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.28 no.10
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• pp.564-569
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• 2018

$Cu_2ZnSn(S,Se)_4$ (CZTSSe) films were prepared on Mo coated soda lime glass substrates by sulfo-selenization of sputtered stacked Zn-Sn-Cu(CZT) precursor films. The precursor was dried in a capped state with aqueous NaOH solution. The CZT precursor films were sulfo-selenized in the S + Se vapor atmosphere. Sodium was doped during the sulfo-selenization treatment. The effect of sodium doping on the structural and electrical properties of the CZTSSe thin films were studied using FE-SEM(field-emission scanning electron microscopy), XRD(X-ray diffraction), XRF(X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy), dark current, SIMS(secondary ion mass spectrometry), conversion efficiency. The XRD, XRF, FE-SEM, Dark current, SIMS and cell efficiency results indicated that the properties of sulfo-selenized CZTSSe thin films were strongly related to the sodium doping. Further detailed analysis and discussion for effect of sodium doping on the properties CZTSSe thin films will be discussed.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.68-73
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• 2020

Due to its favorable optical properties, Cu₂SnS₃ (CTS) is a promising material for thin film solar cells. Doping, which modifies the absorber properties, is one way to improve the conversion efficiency of CTS solar cells. In this work, CTS solar cells with selenium doping were fabricated on a flexible substrate using sputtering method and the effect of doping on the properties of CTS solar cells was investigated. In XRD analysis, a shift in the CTS peaks can be observed due to the doped selenium. XRF analysis confirmed the different ratios of Cu/Sn and (S+Se)/(Cu+Sn) depending on the amount of selenium doping. Selenium doping can help to lower the chemical potential of sulfur. This effectively reduces the point defects of CTS thin films. Overall improved electrical properties were observed in the CTS solar cell with a small amount of selenium doping, and a notable conversion efficiency of 1.02 % was achieved in the CTS solar cell doped with 1 at% of selenium.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.42 no.6
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• pp.276-279
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• 2009

ITO and ITO:Ce films were deposited by DC magnetron sputtering using an ITO ($SnO_2$: 10 wt%) and $CeO_2$ doped ITO ($CeO_2$: 0.5, 3.0, 4.0 and 6.0 wt%) ceramic targets, respectively, on unheated polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrates. The lowest resistivity $6.7{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}cm$ was obtained from ITO:Ce film deposited using $CeO_2$ (3.0 wt%) doped ITO target. On hte other hand, ITO:Ce (0.5wt%) film has the excellent mechanical durability which was evaluated by bending test. This result was attributed to the higher binding energy of $CeO_2$ compared to $SnO_2$ and $In_2O_3$. Therefore, $CeO_2$ atoms have a small displacement caused by the bombardment of high energy particles, and it attribute to the increase in adhesion caused by decrease in internal stress. The average transmittance of the films was more than 80% in the visible region.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.335-335
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• 2014

Over the past several years, transparent conducting oxides have been extensively studied in order to replace indium tin oxide (ITO). Here we report on fluorine doped zinc tin oxide (FZTO) films deposited on glass substrates by radio-frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering using a 30 wt% ZnO with 70 wt% SnO2 ceramic targets. The F-doping was carried out by introducing a mixed gas of pure Ar, CF4, and O2 forming gas into the sputtering chamber while sputtering ZTO target. Annealing temperature affects the structural, electrical and optical properties of FZTO thin films. All the as-deposited FZTO films grown at room temperature are found to be amorphous because of the immiscibility of SnO2 and ZnO. Even after the as-deposited FZTO films were annealed from $300{\sim}500^{\circ}C$, there were no significant changes. However, when the sample is annealed temperature up to $600^{\circ}C$, two distinct diffraction peaks appear in XRD spectra at $2{\Theta}=34.0^{\circ}$ and $52.02^{\circ}$, respectively, which correspond to the (101) and (211) planes of rutile phase SnO2. FZTO thin film annealed at $600^{\circ}C$ resulted in decrease of resistivity $5.47{\times}10^{-3}{\Omega}cm$, carrier concentration ~1019 cm-3, mobility~20 cm2 V-1s-1 and increase of optical band gap from 3.41 to 3.60 eV with increasing the annealing temperatures and well explained by Burstein-Moss effect. Change of work function with the annealing temperature was obtained by ultraviolet photoemission spectroscopy. The increase of annealing temperature leads to increase of work function from ${\phi}=3.80eV$ (as-deposited FZTO) to ${\phi}=4.10eV$ ($600^{\circ}C$ annealed FZTO) which are quite smaller than 4.62 eV for Al-ZnO and 4.74 eV for SnO2. Through X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, incorporation of F atoms was found at around the binding energy of 684.28 eV in the as-deposited and annealed FZTO up to 400oC, but can't be observed in the annealed FZTO at 500oC. This result indicates that F atoms in FZTO films are loosely bound or probably located in the interstitial sites instead of substitutional sites and thus easily diffused into the vacuum from the films by thermal annealing. The optical transmittance of FZTO films was higher than 80% in all specimens and 2-3% higher than ZTO films. FZTO is a possible potential transparent conducting oxide (TCO) alternative for application in optoelectronics.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.08a
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• pp.256-256
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• 2010

투명전극부터 디스플레이 산업에 이르기까지 광범위하게 응용되어지고 있고 개발되어지고 있는 투명전도산화물(TCO)은 ZnO, In2O3, SnO2 등을 기본으로 하는 n-type 재료가 대부분이다. 그러나 투명전도 산화물을 이용한 light emitting diode(LED), 투명한 태양전지, p-형 TFT와 같은 투명전자소자의 개발을 위해서는 p-type 소재가 필수적이다. p-type TCO 소재는 비교적 연구 개발 실적이 매우 부진한 실정이었다. 1997년 넓은 밴드갭을 가지는 ABO2(delafossite) 산화물이 p-type으로서 안정적이라는 것을 보고함에 따라 이에 대한 연구가 활발히 진행되고 있다. 현재 ABO2 형태를 가진 Delafossite구조 산화물이 가장 유망한 p-type 투명전도체 소재로 거론되고 있다. Delafossite 구조가 p-type 투명전도체에 적합한 결정구조인 이유는 밴드갭이 넓고 공유결합에 유리하기 때문이다. Delafossite구조는 상온에서 2종류의 polytype(상온에서 Rhombohedaral구조와 hexagonal 구조)이 존재하며 이들은 각각 3R 및 2H의 결정 구조를 가지고 있다. ABO2의 delafossite구조에서 Cu+의 배열은 c-축을 따라 Cu-O-Cr-O-Cu의 연속적인 층 구조로서 2차원연결로 보여 진다. 보고된 Cu- base delafossite구조를 가지는 재료들은 CuAlO2, CuGaO2, CuInO2 등 여러가지가 있다. 본 연구에서는 PLD를 이용하여 c-plane 사파이어 기판위에 성장된 delafossite구조인 CuCrO2박막의 특성을 알아보았다. p-type 특성을 위하여 CuCrO2에 Zn를 첨가하였으며 그에 따른 구조적 전기적 특성을 조사하였다. 성장온도와 산소분압을 $500{\sim}700^{\circ}C$, 0~10mTorr로 변화시켜 특성을 연구하였다. 성장온도 $700^{\circ}C$, 산소분압 10mTorr에서 c-plane 사파이어 기판위에 c-축 배향의 에피성장된 CuCrO2:Zn 박막을 얻을 수 있었다. Mg를 도핑함에 따른 p-type 특성보다 현저히 떨어지는 것을 확인하였다. 또한 동일한 조건임에도 특정한 이차상의 존재를 통해 도핑된 Zn의 위치를 추측할 수 있었다. 온도와 분압에 따른 결정성과 표면상태를 SEM을 통해서 확인하였다.