• Korean Journal of Materials Research
• /
• v.29 no.1
• /
• pp.1-6
• /
• 2019

Recent industrialization has led to a high demand for the use of fossil fuels. Therefore, the need for producing hydrogen and its utilization is essential for a sustainable society. For an eco-friendly future technology, photoelectrochemical water splitting using solar energy has proven promising amongst many other candidates. With this technique, semiconductors can be used as photocatalysts to generate electrons by light absorption, resulting in the reduction of hydrogen ions. The photocatalysts must be chemically stable, economically inexpensive and be able to utilize a wide range of light. From this perspective, cuprous oxide($Cu_2O$) is a promising p-type semiconductor because of its appropriate band gap. However, a major hindrance to the use of $Cu_2O$ is its instability at the potential in which hydrogen ion is reduced. In this study, gold is used as a bottom electrode during electrodeposition to obtain a preferential growth along the (111) plane of $Cu_2O$ while imperfections of the $Cu_2O$ thin films are removed. This study investigates the photoelectrochemical properties of $Cu_2O$. However, severe photo-induced corrosion impedes the use of $Cu_2O$ as a photoelectrode. Two candidates, $TiO_2$ and $SnO_2$, are selected for the passivation layer on $Cu_2O$ by by considering the Pourbaix-diagram. $TiO_2$ and $SnO_2$ passivation layers are deposited by atomic layer deposition(ALD) and a sputtering process, respectively. The investigation of the photoelectrochemical properties confirmed that $SnO_2$ is a good passivation layer for $Cu_2O$.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
• /
• v.4 no.6
• /
• pp.715-722
• /
• 1994

Thermochromic $Vo_{2}$ thin films for "smart windows" were prepared by electron beam evaporationmethod on a glass substrate and spectral transmittances were examined by spectrophotometer. Substratetemperature of $300^{\circ}C$ and annealing temperature of $400^{\circ}C$ were found to be effective to give athermochromism on $Vo_{2}$ thin film due to the crystallization of the thin film. Furthermore, annealing of$Vo_{2}$ thin film affected the spectral transmittance and reduced the transmittance significantly at wavelengthbelow 500nm.$V_{0.95}W_{0.05}O_{2}$ thin film doped by 5 atomic percent of W showed semiconductor-metal transition around 0$0^{\circ}V_{0.995}W_{0.005}O_{2}$thin film which contains 0.5 atomic percent Sn showed therrnochrornisrn when it was depositedat substrate temperature of $300^{\circ}C$ and annealed at $450^{\circ}C$ for 5 hours in argon gas. The transitiontemperature of the $V_{0.995}W_{0.005}O_{2}$ thin film was found to be about $25^{\circ}C$ and showed some hysterisis. and showed some hysterisis.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
• /
• v.40 no.1
• /
• pp.11-19
• /
• 2003

A micro sensor array with 4 discrete sensors integrated on a microhotplate was developed for identifying the kinds and quantities of explosive gases. The sensor array consisited of four tin oxide-based thin films with the high and broad sensitivity to the tested explosive gases and uniform thermal distribution on the plate. The microhotplate, using silicon substrate with N/O/N membrane, dangling in air by Al bonding wires, and controlling the thickness by chemical mechanical process (CMP), has been designed and fabricated. By employing the sensitivity signal of the sensor array at 40$0^{\circ}C$, we could reliably classily the kinds and quantities of the explosive gases like butan, propane, LPG, and carbon monoxide within the range of threshold limit values (TLVs), employing principal component analysis (PCA).

• Journal of Magnetics
• /
• v.13 no.3
• /
• pp.88-91
• /
• 2008

This study examined the effect of Sn co-doping on the transport and magnetic properties of Cr-doped $In_2O_3$ thin films grown on (100) silicon substrates by pulsed laser deposition. The experimental results showed that Sn co-doping enhances the magnetization and appearance of the anomalous Hall effect, and increases the carrier (electron) concentration. These results suggest that the conduction carrier plays an important role in enhancing the ferromagnetism of a laser-deposited Cr-doped $In_2O_3$ film, which may have applications in transparent oxide semiconductor spin electronics devices.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
• /
• v.10 no.4
• /
• pp.411-415
• /
• 2001

Using the plasma that we developed to generate a low-temperature plasma at atmospheric pressure, we have investigated the etching possibility of tin oxide $(SnO_2)$ thin films. Hydrogen and methane radicals generated from the plasma were observed and their intensity was found to be dependent on the cathode material by an analysis with optical emission spectroscopy as well as by the plasma impedance. The etching ability of this plasma was evaluated by an emission intensity as well as by the evaluation of impedance using a plasma I-V curve.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
• /
• v.21 no.9
• /
• pp.491-496
• /
• 2011

Transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) used in the antireflection layer and current spreading layer of heterojunction solar cells should have excellent optical and electrical properties. Furthermore, TCOs need a high work function over 5.2 eV to prevent the effect of emitter band-bending caused by the difference in work function between emitter and TCOs. Sn-doped $In_2O_3$ (ITO) film is a highly promising material as a TCO due to its excellent optical and electrical properties. However, ITO films have a low work function of about 4.8 eV. This low work function of ITO films leads to deterioration of the conversion efficiency of solar cells. In this work, ITO films with various Zn contents of 0, 6.9, 12.7, 28.8, and 36.6 at.% were fabricated by a co-sputtering method using ITO and AZO targets at room temperature. The optical and electrical properties of Zn-doped ITO thin films were analyzed. Then, silicon heterojunction solar cells with these films were fabricated. The 12.7 at% Zn-doped ITO films show the highest hall mobility of 35.71 $cm^2$/Vsec. With increasing Zn content over 12.7, the hall mobility decreases. Although a small addition of Zn content increased the work function, further addition of Zn content over 12.7 at.% led to decreasing electrical properties because of the decrease in the carrier concentration and hall mobility. Silicon heterojunction solar cells with 12.7 at% Zn-doped ITO thin films showed the highest conversion efficiency of 15.8%.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
• /
• v.18 no.1
• /
• pp.55-57
• /
• 2017

Amorphous oxide thin film transistors (TFTs) were fabricated with 0.5 wt% silicon doped zinc tin oxide (a-0.5SZTO) thin film deposited by radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering. In order to investigate the effect of annealing treatment on the electrical properties of TFTs, a-0.5SZTO thin films were annealed at three different temperatures ($300^{\circ}C$, $500^{\circ}C$, and $700^{\circ}C$ for 2 hours in a air atmosphere. The structural and electrical properties of a-0.5SZTO TFTs were measured using X-ray diffraction and a semiconductor analyzer. As annealing temperature increased from $300^{\circ}C$ to $500^{\circ}C$, no peak was observed. This provided crystalline properties indicating that the amorphous phase was observed up to $500^{\circ}C$. The electrical properties of a-0.5SZTO TFTs, such as the field effect mobility (${\mu}_{FE}$) of $24.31cm^2/Vs$, on current ($I_{ON}$) of $2.38{\times}10^{-4}A$, and subthreshold swing (S.S) of 0.59 V/decade improved with the thermal annealing treatment. This improvement was mainly due to the increased carrier concentration and decreased structural defects by rearranged atoms. However, when a-0.5SZTO TFTs were annealed at $700^{\circ}C$, a crystalline peak was observed. As a result, electrical properties degraded. ${\mu}_{FE}$ was $0.06cm^2/Vs$, $I_{ON}$ was $5.27{\times}10^{-7}A$, and S.S was 2.09 V/decade. This degradation of electrical properties was mainly due to increased interfacial and bulk trap densities of forming grain boundaries caused by the annealing treatment.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2010.11a
• /
• pp.42.2-42.2
• /
• 2010

Transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) are of significant importance for their applications in various devices, such as light-emitting diodes, thin-film solar cells, organic light-emitting diodes, liquid crystal displays, and so on. In order for TCOs to contribute to the performance improvement of these devices, TCOs should have high transmittance and good electrical properties simultaneously. Sn-doped $In_2O_3$ (ITO) is the most commonly used TCO. However, indium is toxic and scarce in nature. Thus, ZnO has attracted a lot of attention because of the possibility for replacing ITO. In particular, group III impurity-doped ZnO showed the optoelectronic properties comparable to those of ITO electrodes. Al-doped ZnO exhibited the best performance among various doped ZnO films because of the high substitutional doping efficiency. However, in order for the Al-doped ZnO to replace ITO in electronic devices, their electrical and optical properties should further significantly be improved. In this connection, different ways such as a variation of deposition conditions, different deposition techniques, and post-deposition annealing processes have been investigated so far. Among the deposition methods, RF magnetron sputtering has been extensively used because of the easiness in controlling deposition parameters and its fast deposition rate. In addition, when combined with post-deposition annealing in a reducing ambient, the optoelectronic properties of Al-doped ZnO films were found to be further improved. In this presentation, we deposited Al-doped ZnO (ZnO:$Al_2O_3$ = 98:2 wt%) thin films on the glass and sapphire substrates using RF magnetron sputtering as a function of substrate temperature. In addition, the ZnO samples were annealed in different conditions, e.g., rapid thermal annealing (RTA) at $900^{\circ}C$ in $N_2$ ambient for 1 min, tube-furnace annealing at $500^{\circ}C$ in $N_2:H_2$=9:1 gas flow for 1 hour, or RTA combined with tube-furnace annealing. It is found that the mobilities and carrier concentrations of the samples are dependent on growth temperature followed by one of three subsequent post-deposition annealing conditions.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
• /
• v.3 no.1
• /
• pp.18-22
• /
• 2002

ITO thin films with thickness of 3000 $\AA$ were fabricated by rf magnetron sputtering system with a 10 mol % SnO$_2$-90 mol % In$_2$O$_3$target at various substrate temperature and annealing temperature in air. And we investigated structural, electrical and optical characteristics of them. It's resistivity, carrier concentration and Hall mobility was 2$\times$10$\^$-4/ Ωcm, 7$\times$10$\^$20/∼ 9$\times$10$\^$20/ cm$\^$-3/ and 21∼23 cm$^2$/V$.$sec respectively. And it's optical transmittance and energy band gap was above 85 % in the visible range and 3.53 eV respectively.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
• /
• 2009.11a
• /
• pp.50.1-50.1
• /
• 2009

Transparent conductive oxides (TCOs) play an important role in thin-film solar cells in terms of low cost and performance improvement. Al-doped ZnO (AZO) is a very promising material for thin-film solar cellfabrication because of the wide availability of its constituent raw materials and its low cost. In this study, AZO films were prepared by low pressurechemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) using trimethylaluminum (TMA), diethylzinc(DEZ), and water vapor. In order to improve the absorbance of light, atypical surface texturing method is wet etching of front electrode using chemical solution. Alternatively, LPCVD can create a rough surface during deposition. This "self-texturing" is a very useful technique, which can eliminate additional chemical texturing process. The introduction of a TMA doping source has a strong influence on resistivity and the diffusion of light in a wide wavelength range.The haze factor of AZO up to a value of 43 % at 600 nm was achieved without an additional surface texturing process by simple TMA doping. The use of AZO TCO resulted in energy conversion efficiencies of 7.7 % when it was applied to thep-i-n a-Si:H thin film solar cell, which was comparable to commercially available fluorine doped tin oxide ($SnO_2$:F).