• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• 제11권2호
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• pp.39-43
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• 2023

Carrier-selective contacts (CSCs) solar cells are considerably attractive on highly efficient crystalline silicon heterojunction (SHJ) solar cells due to their advantages of high thermal tolerance and the simple fabrication process. CSCs solar cells require a hole selective contact (HSC) layer that selectively collects only holes. In order to selectively collect holes, it must have a work function characteristic of 5.0 eV or more when contacted with n-type Si. The VO_x, NiO_x, and CuI_x thin films were fabricated and analyzed respectively to confirm their potential usage as a hole-selective contact (HSC) layer. All thin films showed characteristics of band-gap engergy > 3.0 eV, work function > 5.0 eV and minority carrier lifetime > 1.5 ms.

• 전기학회논문지
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• 제66권8호
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• pp.1230-1235
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• 2017

We studied surface texture-etching of glass substrate by using reactive ion etching process with various working pressure (0.7~9.0 mT). With the increase in the pressure, a haze parameter, which means diffusive transmittance/total transmittance, was increased in overall wavelength regions, as measured by spectrophotometer. Also, atomic force microscopy (AFM) study also showed that the surface topography transformed from V-shaped, keen surface to U-shaped, flattened surface, which is beneficial for nanocrystalline silicon semiconductor growth with suppressing defective crack formation. The texture-etched ZnO:Al combined with textured glass exhibited pronounced haze properties that showed 60~90 % in overall spectral wavelength regions. This promising optical properties of double textured, transparent conducting substrate can be widely applied in silicon thin film photovoltaics and other optoelectronic devices.

• 한국전기전자재료학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국전기전자재료학회 2003년도 하계학술대회 논문집 Vol.4 No.2
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• pp.1034-1037
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• 2003

Microcrystalline silicon(c-Si:H) thin-film solar cells are prepared with intrinsic Si-layer by hot wire CVD. The operating parameters of solar cells are strongly affected by the filament temperature ($T_f$) during intrinsic layer. Jsc and efficiency abruptly decreases with elevated $T_f$ to $1400^{\circ}C$. This deterioration of solar cell parameters are resulted from increase of crystalline volume fraction and corresponding defect density at high $T_f$. The heater temperature ($T_h$) are also critical parameter that controls device operations. Solar cells prepared at low $T_h$ ($<200^{\circ}C$) shows a similar operating properties with devices prepared at high $T_f$, i.e. low Jsc, Voc and efficiency. The origins for this result, however, are different with that of inferior device performances at high $T_f$. In addition the phase transition of the silicon films occurs at different silane concentration (SC) by varying filament temperature, by which highest efficiency with SC varies with $T_f$.

• 한국재료학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국재료학회 2009년도 추계학술발표대회
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• pp.50.1-50.1
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• 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).

• 신재생에너지
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• 제3권4호
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• pp.54-62
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• 2007

In this paper, we report the research highlight on the preparation and characterization of Indium-free $Cu_2ZnSnSe_4$ and Indium-reduced $CulnZnSe_2$ thin films in order to seek the viability of these absorber materials to be applied in thin film solar cells. The films of $Cu_2ZnSnSe_4\;and\;CulnZnSe_2$ were prepared using mixed binary chalcogenides powders. It was observed that Cu concentration was a function of substrate temperature as well as CuSe mole ratio in the target. Under an optimized condition, $Cu_2ZnSnSe_4\;and\;CulnZnSe_2$ thin films grew with strong [112]. [220/204] and [312/116] reflections. Both $Cu_2ZnSnSe_4\;and\;CulnZnSe_2$ films were found to exhibit a high absorption coefficient of $104^4cm^{-1}\;Cu_2ZnSnSe_4$ film showed a band gap of 1.5eV which closes to the optimum band gap of an ideal solar absorber for a solar cell. On the other side, an increase of optical band gap from 1.0 to 1.25eV was found to be proportional with an increase of Zn concentration in the $CulnZnSe_2$ film. All films in this study revealed a p-type semiconductor characteristic.

• ETRI Journal
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• 제34권5호
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• pp.779-782
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• 2012

$CuIn_{1-x}Ga_xSe_2$ (CIGS) thin films are grown on Mo/soda lime glass using a reactive sputtering process in which a Se cracker is used to deliver reactive Se molecules. The Cu and $(In_{0.7}Ga_{0.3})_2Se_3$ targets are simultaneously sputtered under the delivery of reactive Se. The effects of Se flux on film composition are investigated. The Cu/(In+Ga) composition ratio increases as the Se flux increases at a plasma power of less than 30 W for the Cu target. The (112) crystal orientation becomes dominant, and crystal grain size is larger with Se flux. The power conversion efficiency of a solar cell fabricated using an 800-nm CIGS film is 8.5%.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• 제5권3호
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• pp.75-82
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• 2017

High efficiency thin film solar cells require an absorber layer with high absorption and low defect, a transparent conductive oxide (TCO) film with high transmittance of over 80% and a high conductivity. Furthermore, light can be captured through the glass substrate and sent to the light absorbing layer to improve the efficiency. In this paper, morphology formation on the surface of glass substrate was investigated by using HF, mainly classified as random etching and periodic etching. We discussed about the etch mechanism, etch rate and hard mask materials, and periodic light trapping structure.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• 제4권3호
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• pp.108-113
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• 2016

III-V compound semiconductor based thin film solar cells promise relatively higher power conversion efficiencies and better device reliability. In general, the thin film III-V solar cells are fabricated by an epitaxial lift-off process, which requires an $Al_xGa_{1-x}As$ ($x{\geq}0.8$) sacrificial layer and an inverted solar cell structure. However, the device performance of the inversely grown solar cell could be degraded due to the different internal diffusion conditions. In this study, InGaP/GaAs double-junction solar cells are inversely grown by MOCVD on GaAs (100) substrates. The thickness of the GaAs base layer is reduced to minimize the thermal budget during the growth. A wide band gap p-AlGaAs/n-InGaP tunnel junction structure is employed to connect the two subcells with minimal electrical loss. The solar cell structures are transferred on to thin metal films formed by Au electroplating. An AlAs layer with a thickness of 20 nm is used as a sacrificial layer, which is removed by a HF:Acetone (1:1) solution during the epitaxial lift-off process. As a result, the flexible InGaP/GaAs solar cell was fabricated successfully with an efficiency of 27.79% under AM1.5G illumination. The efficiency was kept at almost the same value after bending tests of 1,000 cycles with a radius of curvature of 10 mm.

• 한국진공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국진공학회 2011년도 제40회 동계학술대회 초록집
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• pp.204-205
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• 2011

In thin film silicon solar cells, p-i-n structure is adopted instead of p/n junction structure as in wafer-based Si solar cells. PECVD is a most widely used thin film deposition process for a-Si:H or ${\mu}c$-Si:H solar cells. For best performance of thin film silicon solar cell, the dopant profiles at p/i and i/n interfaces need to be as sharp as possible. The sharpness of dopant profiles can easily achieved when using multi-chamber PECVD equipment, in which each layer is deposited in separate chamber. However, in a single-chamber PECVD system, doped and intrinsic layers are deposited in one plasma chamber, which inevitably impedes sharp dopant profiles at the interfaces due to the contamination from previous deposition process. The cross-contamination between layers is a serious drawback of a single-chamber PECVD system in spite of the advantage of lower initial investment cost for the equipment. In order to resolve the cross-contamination problem in single-chamber PECVD systems, flushing method of the chamber with NH3 gas or water vapor after doped layer deposition process has been used. In this study, a new plasma process to solve the cross-contamination problem in a single-chamber PECVD system was suggested. A single-chamber VHF-PECVD system was used for superstrate type p-i-n a-Si:H solar cell manufacturing on Asahi-type U FTO glass. A 80 MHz and 20 watts of pulsed RF power was applied to the parallel plate RF cathode at the frequency of 10 kHz and 80% duty ratio. A mixture gas of Ar, H2 and SiH4 was used for i-layer deposition and the deposition pressure was 0.4 Torr. For p and n layer deposition, B2H6 and PH3 was used as doping gas, respectively. The deposition temperature was $250^{\circ}C$ and the total p-i-n layer thickness was about $3500{\AA}$. In order to remove the deposited B inside of the vacuum chamber during p-layer deposition, a high pulsed RF power of about 80 W was applied right after p-layer deposition without SiH4 gas, which is followed by i-layer and n-layer deposition. Finally, Ag was deposited as top electrode. The best initial solar cell efficiency of 9.5 % for test cell area of 0.2 $cm^2$ could be achieved by applying the in-situ plasma cleaning method. The dependence on RF power and treatment time was investigated along with the SIMS analysis of the p-i interface for boron profiles.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• 제34권5호
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• pp.1355-1360
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• 2013

We have developed a new multifunctional material, 4,4',4"-tris(4-naphthalen-2-yl-phenyl)amine (2-TNPA), which can be used as a blue-emitting and hole-transporting material in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), as well as a donor material in organic solar cells (OSCs) and an active material in organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs). The OLED device doped with 3% 2-TNPA shows a maximum current efficiency of 3.0 $cdA^{-1}$ and an external quantum efficiency of 3.0%. 2-TNPA is a more efficient hole-transporting material than 4,4'-bis[N-(naphthyl-N-phenylamino)]biphenyl (NPD). Furthermore, 2-TNPA shows a power-conversion efficiency of 0.39% in OSC and a field-effect mobility of $3.2{\times}10^{-4}cm^2V^{-1}s^{-1}$ in OTFTs.