• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.33 no.8
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• pp.344-351
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• 2023

Cesium lead iodide (CsPbI₃) with a bandgap of ~1.7 eV is an attractive material for use as a wide-gap perovskite in tandem perovskite solar cells due to its single halide component, which is capable of inhibiting halide segregation. However, phase transition into a photo inactive δ-CsPbI₃ at room temperature significantly hinders performance and stability. Thus, maintaining the photo-active phase is a key challenge because it determines the reliability of the tandem device. The dimethylammonium (DMA)-facilitated CsPbI₃, widely used to fabricate CsPbI₃, exhibits different phase transition behaviors than pure CsPbI₃. Here, we experimentally investigated the phase behavior of DMA-facilitated CsPbI₃ when exposed to external factors, such as heat and moisture. In DMA-facilitated CsPbI₃ films, the phase transition involving degradation was observed to begin at a temperature of 150 ℃ and a relative humidity of 65 %, which is presumed to be related to the sublimation of DMA. Forming a closed system to inhibit the sublimation of DMA significantly improved the phase transition under the same conditions. These results indicate that management of DMA is a crucial factor in maintaining the photo-active phase and implies that when employing DMA designs are necessary to ensure phase stability in DMA-facilitated CsPbI₃ devices.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.17-24
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• 2021

Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) can be fabricated through solution process economically with variable bandgap that is controlled by composition of precursor solution. Tandem cells in which PSCs combined with silicon solar cells have potential to reach high power conversion efficiency over 30%, however, lack of long-term stability of PSCs is an obstacle to commercialization. Degradation of PSCs is mainly attributed to the mass transport of halide and metal electrode materials. In order to ensure the long-term stability, the mass transport should be inhibited. In this study, we confirmed degradation behaviors due to the mass transport in PSCs and designed buffer layers with LiF and/or SnO₂ to improve the long-term stability by suppressing the mass transport. Under high-temperature storage test at 85℃, PSCs without the buffer layers were degraded by forming PbI₂, AgI, and the delta phase of the perovskite material, while PSCs with the buffer layers showed improved stability with keeping the original phase of the perovskite. When the LiF buffer and encapsulation were applied to PSCs, superior long-term stability on 85℃-85% RH dump heat test was achieved; efficiency drop was not observed after 200 h. It was also confirmed that 90.6% of the initial efficiency was maintained after 200 hours of maximum power tracking test under AM 1.5G-1SUN illumination. Here, we have demonstrated that the buffer layer is essential to achieve long-term stability of PSCs.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.163-166
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• 2009

다중접합 초 고효율 태양전지 제조를 위해 SiC 매트릭스를 이용한 실리콘 양자점 초격자 박막을 제조하고 특성을 분석하였다. $SiC/Si_{1-x}C_x$(x ~ 0.31)로 실리콘 양자점 초격자 박막을 Si과 C target을 이용한 co-sputtering법으로 초격자 박막을 제조하고, $1000^{\circ}C$에서 20분간 열처리를 하였다. high resolution transmission electron microscopy 사진으로 약1~7nm 크기인 양자점 생성과 분포 밀도를 확인할 수 있었으며, grazing incident X-ray diffraction (GIXRD)를 통해서 Si(111)과 $\beta$-SiC(111)이 생성되었음을 알 수 있었다. Auger electron spectroscopy (AES)측정에서 stoichiometric SiC층과 Si-rich SiC층의 Si 원자농도 (56%, 69%)와 C 원자 농도 (44%, 31%)를 알 수 있었으며, Fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy (FTIR)측정에서 SiC 픽의 위치가 767에서 $800cm^{-1}$으로 이동하는 것을 알 수 있었다.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.38-43
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• 2013

$Cu(In,Ga)_3Se_5$ is a candidate material for the top cell of $Cu(In,Ga)Se_2$ tandem cells. This phase is often found at the surface of the $Cu(In,Ga)Se_2$ film during $Cu(In,Ga)Se_2$ cell fabrication, and plays a positive role in $Cu(In,Ga)Se_2$ cell performance. However, the exact properties of the $Cu(In,Ga)_3Se_5$ film have not been extensively studied yet. In this work, $Cu(In,Ga)_3Se_5$ films were fabricated on Mo-coated soda-lime glass substrates by a three-stage co-evaporation process. The Cu content in the film was controlled by varying the deposition time of each stage. X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy analyses showed that, even though the stoichiometric Cu/(In+Ga) ratio is 0.25, $Cu(In,Ga)_3Se_5$ is easily formed in a wide range of Cu content as long as the Cu/(In+Ga) ratio is held below 0.5. The optical band gap of $Cu_{0.3}(In_{0.65}Ga_{0.35})_3Se_5$ composition was found to be 1.35eV. As the Cu/(In+Ga) ratio was decreased further below 0.5, the grain size became smaller and the band gap increased. Unlike the $Cu(In,Ga)Se_2$ solar cell, an external supply of Na with $Na_2S$ deposition further increased the cell efficiency of the $Cu(In,Ga)_3Se_5$ solar cell, indicating that more Na is necessary, in addition to the Na supply from the soda lime glass, to suppress deep level defects in the $Cu(In,Ga)_3Se_5$ film. The cell efficiency of $CdS/Cu(In,Ga)_3Se_5$ was improved from 8.8 to 11.2% by incorporating Na with $Na_2S$ deposition on the CIGS film. The fill factor was significantly improved by the Na incorporation, due to a decrease of deep-level defects.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.289-293
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• 2010

Silicon quantum dots (Si QDs) in a superlattice for high efficiency tandem solar cells were fabricated by magnetron rf sputtering and their characteristics were investigated. SiC/$Si_{1-x}C_x$ superlattices were deposited by co-sputtering of Si and C targets and annealed at $1000^{\circ}C$ for 20 minutes in a nitrogen atmosphere. The Si QDs in Si-rich layers were verified by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray diffraction. The size of the QDs was observed to be 3-6 nm through high resolution TEM. Some crystal Si and -SiC peaks were clearly observed in the grazing incident X-ray diffractogram. Raman spectroscopy in the annealed sample showed a sharp peak at $516\;cm^{-1}$ which is an indication of Si QDs. Based on the Raman shift the size of the QD was estimated to be 4-6 nm. The volume fraction of Si crystals was calculated to be about 33%. The change of the FT-IR absorption spectrum from a Gaussian shape to a Lorentzian shape also confirmed the phase transition from an amorphous phase before annealing to a crystalline phase after annealing. The optical absorption coefficient also decreased, but the optical band gap increased from 1.5 eV to 2.1 eV after annealing. Therefore, it is expected that the optical energy gap of the QDs can be controlled with growth and annealing conditions.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.08a
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• pp.308-309
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• 2012

One of the critical issues in the growth of multijunction solar cell is the formation of a highly doped Esaki interband tunnel diode which interconnects unit cells of different energy band gap. Small electrical and optical losses are the requirements of such tunnel diodes [1]. To satisfy these requirements, tens of nanometer thick gallium arsenide (GaAs) can be a proper candidate due to its high carrier concentration in low energy band gap. To obtain highly doped GaAs in molecular beam epitaxy, the temperatures of Si Knudsen cell (K-cell) for n-type GaAs and Be K-cell for p-type GaAs were controlled during GaAs epitaxial growth, and the growth rate is set to 1.75 A/s. As a result, the doping concentration of p-type and n-type GaAs increased up to $4.7{\times}10^{19}cm^{-3}$ and $6.2{\times}10^{18}cm^{-3}$, respectively. However, the obtained n-type doping concentration is not sufficient to form a properly operating tunnel diode which requires a doping concentration close to $1.0{\times}10^{19}cm^{-3}$ [2]. To enhance the n-type doping concentration, n-doped GaAs samples were grown with a lower growth rate ranging from 0.318 to 1.123 A/s at a Si K-cell temperature of $1,180^{\circ}C$. As shown in Fig. 1, the n-type doping concentration was increased to $7.7{\times}10^{18}cm^{-3}$ when the growth rate was decreased to 0.318 A/s. The p-type doping concentration also increased to $4.1{\times}10^{19}cm^{-3}$ with the decrease of growth rate to 0.318 A/s. Additionally, bulk resistance was also decreased in both the grown samples. However, a transmission line measurement performed on the n-type GaAs sample grown at the rate of 0.318 A/s showed an increased specific contact resistance of $6.62{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}{\cdot}cm^{-2}$. This high value of contact resistance is not suitable for forming contacts and interfaces. The increased resistance is attributed to the excessively incorporated dopant during low growth rate. Further studies need to be carried out to evaluate the effect of excess dopants on the operation of tunnel diode.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.62.2-62.2
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• 2010

박막 실리콘 태양 전지는 저가격화 및 대량생산, 대면적화에 유리하다는 장점을 가지고 있다. 단점으로 지적되는 낮은 효율을 극복하기 위해 광흡수층의 밴드갭이 서로 다른 두 개 이상의 박막을 적층하여, 넓은 파장 대역의 빛을 효과적으로 흡수함으로써 광변환 효율을 올리기 위한 많은 연구가 이루어지고 있다. 서로 다른 밴드갭의 광흡수층을 가진 p-i-n 구조를 다중 적층하여 고효율의 태양 전지를 제작하기 위해서는 n-도핑층과, p-도핑층 간에 전자와 정공이 빠르게 재결합할 수 있는 터널 접합(Tunnel Recombination Junction)의 형성이 필수적이며, 이때 광손실이 최소화되도록 해야한다. 만약 터널 접합이 적절하게 형성되지 않으면 결합되지 않은 전자와 정공이 도핑층 사이에 쌓이게 되고, 도핑층 사이의 저항 증가로 태양 전지의 광변환 효율은 크게 하락한다. 이번 연구에서는 터널 접합이 잘 이루어지게 하기 위한 n-도핑층 및 p-도핑층 박막의 특성과, 터널 접합의 특성에 따른 적층형 태양 전지의 광효율 변화를 확인하였다. 광흡수층 및 도핑층은 TCO($SnO_2:F$, Asahi) 유리 기판 위에 PECVD를 사용하여 p-i-n 구조로 RF Power 조건에서 증착되었고, ${\mu}c$-Si 광흡수층의 경우에는 VHF Power 조건에서 증착되었다. 광흡수층이 a-Si/${\mu}c$-Si의 구조를 가지는 이중 접합 태양 전지에서 ${\mu}c$-Si n-도핑층/${\mu}c$-Si p-도핑층 사이의 터널 접합 실험 결과 n-도핑층 및 p-도핑층의 결정화도와 도핑 농도를 조절하여 터널 접합의 저항을 최소화했고, 터널 접합 특성이 이중 접합 셀의 광효율 특성과 유사한 경향을 보임을 확인하였다. 광흡수층이 a-Si/a-SiGe/${\mu}c$-Si의 구조를 가지는 삼중 접합 태양 전지 실험의 경우 a-Si과 a-SiGe 광흡수층 사이에 ${\mu}c$-Si n-도핑층/${\mu}c$-Si p-도핑층/a-SiC p-도핑층의 구조를 적용하여 터널 접합을 형성하였으며, ${\mu}c$-Si p-도핑층의 두께 및 박막 특성을 개선하여 광손실이 최소화된 터널 접합을 구현하였고, 삼중 접합 태양 전지에 적용되었다.