• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.26 no.8
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• pp.417-421
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• 2016

We improve the energy conversion efficiency (ECE) of a dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC) by preparing a working electrode (WE) with localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) by inducing Au thin films with thickness of 0.0 to 5.0 nm, deposited via sputtering. Field emission scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy were used to characterize the microstructure of the blocking layer (BL) of the Au thin films. Micro-Raman measurement was employed to confirm the LSPR effect, and a solar simulator and potentiostat were used to evaluate the photovoltaic properties, including the impedance and the I-V of the DSSC of the Au thin films. The results of the microstructural analysis confirmed that nano-sized Au agglomerates were present at certain thicknesses. The photovoltaic results show that the ECE reached a value of 5.34% with a 1-nm thick-Au thin film compared to the value of 5.15 % without the Au thin film. This improvement was a result of the increase in the LSPR of the $TiO_2$ layer that resulted from the Au thin film coating. Our results imply that the ECE of a DSSC may be improved by coating with a proper thickness of Au thin film on the BL.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.16 no.8
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• pp.490-496
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• 2006

ITO monolayer and ITO/Ag/ITO multilayer thin films are prepared by D.C. magnetron sputtering method. Ag layer was inserted for applying ITO to a flexible substrate at low temperature. Carrier concentration and carrier mobility of ITO and ITO/Ag/ITO thin films were measured, the transmittance of them also was done. The amorphous phase was confirmed to be combined in addition to (400) and (440) peaks from XRD result of ITO thin film. As the substrate temperature increased, the preferred orientation of (400) appeared. From the result of application of Ag layer at room temperature, the growth of columnar structure was inhibited, and the amorphous phase formed mostly. The ITO/Ag/ITO thin film represented the transmittance of above 80% when the thickness of Ag layer was 50 ${\AA}$, and the concentration of carrier increased up to above 10 times than that of ITO thin film. Finally, since very low resistance of 3.9${\Omega}/{\square}$ was observed, the effective application of low temperature process is expected to be possible for ITO thin film.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.216-220
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• 2004

This paper is concerned with the development of stacked ceramic thin actuation layer IDEAL (InterDigitated Electrode Actuation Layer) using d$_{33}$ actuation mechanism of piezoelectric ceramic. Most of the thin piezoelectric actuators are operated with d$_{31}$ actuation mechanism. Many kinds of piezoelectric ceramic actuators are strived now to improve the actuation performance. One of efforts to improve performance of piezoceramic actuators is the research trying to develop an actuator using the piezoelectric coefficient d$_{33}$ . The piezoelectric coefficient d$_{33}$ is almost twice larger than piezoelectric coefficient d$_{31}$ . Therefore, the induced strain of PZT thin layer with d$_{33}$ 3 actuation mechanism is bigger than that with d$_{31}$ actuation mechanism. The AFC(MIT) and LaRC-MFC$^{TM}$ which is developed by a research team of NASA Langley Research Center used d$_{33}$ actuation mechanism with surface interdigitated electrode to enhance its actuation performance. But their actuation mechanism is not perfect d$_{33}$ actuation mechanism since the interdigitated electrodes are placed at the surface of the actuation layer. In this research, the stacked ceramic thin actuation layer with imbedded interdigitated electrode is designed and manufactured. The actuation strain of stacked ceramic thin actuation layer is measured and compared with the actuation strain of the LaRC-MFC$^{TM}$. The comparison shows that the developed stacked ceramic thin actuation layer can produce 15% more actuation strain than LaRC-MFC$^{TM}$.> TM/.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.341-346
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• 2011

In this study, we inserted a Zn buffer layer into a AZO/p-type a-si:H layer interface in order to lower the contact resistance of the interface. For the Zn layer, the deposition was conducted at 5 nm, 7 nm and 10 nm using the rf-magnetron sputtering method. The results were compared to that of the AZO film to discuss the possibility of the Zn layer being used as a transparent conductive oxide thin film for application in the silicon heterojunction solar cell. We used the rf-magnetron sputtering method to fabricate Al 2 wt.% of Al-doped ZnO (AZO) film as a transparent conductive oxide (TCO). We analyzed the electro-optical properties of the ZnO as well as the interface properties of the AZO/p-type a-Si:H layer. After inserting a buffer layer into the AZO/p-type a-Si:H layers to enhance the interface properties, we measured the contact resistance of the layers using a CTLM (circular transmission line model) pattern, the depth profile of the layers using AES (auger electron spectroscopy), and the changes in the properties of the AZO thin film through heat treatment. We investigated the effects of the interface properties of the AZO/p-type a-Si:H layer on the characteristics of silicon heterojunction solar cells and the way to improve the interface properties. When depositing AZO thin film on a-Si layer, oxygen atoms are diffused from the AZO thin film towards the a-Si layer. Thus, the characteristics of the solar cells deteriorate due to the created oxide film. While a diffusion of Zn occurs toward the a-Si in the case of AZO used as TCO, the diffusion of In occurs toward a-Si in the case of ITO used as TCO.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.354-361
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• 2012

The organic memory device was made by the plasma polymerization method which was not the dry process but the wet process. The memory device consist of the styrene and MMA monomer as the insulating layer, MMA monomer as the tunneling layer and Au thin film as the memory layer which was fabricated by thermal evaporation method. The I-V characteristics of fabricated memory device got the hysteresis voltage of 27 V at 40/-40 V double sweep measuring conditions. At this time, the optimized structure was 7 nm of Au thin film as floating gate, 400 nm of styrene thin film as insulating layer and 30 nm of MMA thin film as tunneling layer. Therefore we got the charge trapping characteristics by the hysteresis voltage. From the paper, styrene indicated a good charge trapping characteristics better than MMA. In the future, we expect to make devices by using styrene thin film rather than Au thin film.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.110.1-110.1
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• 2012

Recently, advances in ZnO based oxide semiconductor materials have accelerated the development of thin-film transistors (TFTs), which are the building blocks for active matrix flat-panel displays including liquid crystal displays (LCD) and organic light-emitting diodes (OLED). However, the electrical performances of oxide semiconductors are significantly affected by interactions with the ambient atmosphere. Jeong et al. reported that the channel of the IGZO-TFT is very sensitive to water vapor adsorption. Thus, water vapor passivation layers are necessary for long-term current stability in the operation of the oxide-based TFTs. In the present work, $Al_2O_3$ and $TiO_2$ thin films were deposited on poly ether sulfon (PES) and $SnO_x$-based TFTs by electron cyclotron resonance atomic layer deposition (ECR-ALD). And enhancing the WVTR (water vapor transmission rate) characteristics, barrier layer structure was modified to $Al_2O_3/TiO_2$ layered structure. For example, $Al_2O_3$, $TiO_2$ single layer, $Al_2O_3/TiO_2$ double layer and $Al_2O_3/TiO_2/Al_2O_3/TiO_2$ multilayer were studied for enhancement of water vapor barrier properties. After thin film water vapor barrier deposited on PES substrate and $SnO_x$-based TFT, thin film permeation characteristics were three orders of magnitude smaller than that without water vapor barrier layer of PES substrate, stability of $SnO_x$-based TFT devices were significantly improved. Therefore, the results indicate that $Al_2O_3/TiO_2$ water vapor barrier layers are highly proper for use as a passivation layer in $SnO_x$-based TFT devices.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.106-106
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• 2011

Recently, zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films have attracted great attention as a promising candidate for various electronic applications such as transparent electrodes, thin film transistors, and optoelectronic devices. ZnO thin films have a wide band gap energy of 3.37 eV and transparency in visible region. Moreover, ZnO thin films can be deposited in a poly-crystalline form even at room temperature, extending the choice of substrates including even plastics. Therefore, it is possible to realize thin film transistors by using ZnO thin films as the active channel layer. In this work, we investigated influence of oxygen partial pressure on ZnO thin films and fabricated ZnO-based thin film transistors. ZnO thin films were deposited on glass substrates by using a pulsed laser deposition technique in various oxygen partial pressures from 20 to 100 mTorr at room temperature. X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission line method (TLM), and UV-Vis spectroscopy were employed to study the structural, electrical, and optical properties of the ZnO thin films. As a result, 80 mTorr was optimal condition for active layer of thin film transistors, since the active layer of thin film transistors needs high resistivity to achieve low off-current and high on-off ratio. The fabricated ZnO-based thin film transistors operated in the enhancement mode with high field effect mobility and low threshold voltage.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.427-431
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• 2011

Hybrid $SiO_2-TiO_2$ photoelectrode with different type of layers was investigated in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC). Use of a thin layer of nanocrystalline $TiO_2$ would imply reduction in the amount of dye coverage, however, lower amount of dye in the thin films would imply fewer electron generation upon illumination. So, thus, it becomes necessary to include a $SiO_2-TiO_2$ layer for increase light harvesting effect such that the lower photon conversion due to thin layer could be compensated. In this paper reports the use of transparent high surface area $TiO_2$ layer and an additional $SiO_2-TiO_2$ layer, thus ensuring adequate light harvesting in these devices. The best solar conversion efficiency 6.6% under AM 1.5 was attained with a multi-layer structure using $TiO_2$ layer/$SiO_2-TiO_2$ layer/$TiO_2$ layer for the light harvesting and this had resulted to about 44% increase in photocurrent density of dye-sensitized solar cells.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.196.1-196.1
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• 2016

TCO(Transparent Conducting Oxide) on flat glass is used in thin-film photovoltaic cell, flat-panel display. Nowadays, Corning(R) Willow Glass(R), known as flexible substrate, has attracted much attention due to its many advantages such as reliable roll-to-roll glass processing, high-quality flexible electronic devices, high temperature process. Also, it can be an alternative to flexible polymer substrates which have their poor stability and degradation of electrical and optical qualities. For application on willow glass, the flexibility, electrical, optical properties can be greatly influenced by the TCO thin film thickness due to the inherent characterization of thin film in nanoscale. It can be expected that while thick TCO layer causes poor transparency, its sheet resistance become low. Also, rarely reports were focusing on the influence of flexible properties by varying TCO thickness on flexible glass. Therefore, it is very important to optimize TCO thickness on flexible Willow glass. In this study, Ti-ZnO thin films, with different thickness varied from 0 nm to 50 nm, were deposited on the flexible willow glass by atomic layer deposition (ALD). The flexible, electrical and optical properties were investigated, respectively. Also, these properties of Ti-doped ZnO thin films were compared with un-doped ZnO thin film. Based on the results, when Ti-ZnO thin films thickness increased, resistivity decreased and then saturated; transmittance decreased. The Figure of Merit (FoM) and flexibility was the highest when Ti-ZnO thickness was 40nm. The flexible, electrical and optical properties of Ti-ZnO thin films were better than ZnO thin film at the same thickness.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
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• v.55 no.10
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• pp.461-466
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• 2006

In the present work, we investigated the photodissolution and photodiffusion effect on the interface of Ag/chalcogenide $As_{40}Ge_{10}Se_{15}S_{35}$ thin film by measuring the absorption coefficient, the optical density, the resistance change of Ag layer. It was found that the photodissolutioniphotodiffution ratio depends on the magnitude of photon energy absorbed in the chalcogenide thin film and the depth of photodiffution was proportional to the square root of the exposed time. Also, we have investigated the holographic grating formation with P-polarization states on chalcogenide $As_{40}Ge_{10}Se_{15}S_{35}$ thin film and $As_{40}Ge_{10}Se_{15}S_{35}/Ag$ double layer structure thin film. Holographic gratings have been formed using He-Ne laser (632.8 nm) which have a smaller energy than the optical energy gap, $E_g\;_{opt}$ of the film, i. e., an exposure of sub-bandgap light $(h{\upsilon} under P-polarization. As the results, we found that the diffraction efficiency on $As_{40}Ge_{10}Se_{15}S_{35}/Ag$ double layer structure thin film was more higher than that on single $As_{40}Ge_{10}Se_{15}S_{35}$ thin film. Also, we obtained that the maximum diffraction efficiency was 0.27 %, 1,000 sec on $As_{40}Ge_{10}Se_{15}S_{35}\;(1{\mu}m)/Ag$ (10 nm) double layer structure thin film by (P: P) polarized recording beam. It will offer lots of information for the photodoping mechanism and the analyses of chalcogenide thin films.