• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2011.10a
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• pp.35.1-35.1
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• 2011

New photovoltaic (PV) materials and manufacturing approaches are needed for meeting the demand for lower-cost solar cells. The prototypal thin-film photovoltaic absorbers (CdTe and $Cu(In,Ga)Se_2$) can achieve solar conversion efficiencies of up to 20% and are now commercially available, but the presence of toxic (Cd,Se) and expensive elemental components (In, Te) is a real issue as the demand for photovoltaics rapidly increases. To overcome these limitations, there has been substantial interest in developing viable alternative materials, such as $Cu_2ZnSnS_4$ (CZTS) is an emerging solar absorber that is structurally similar to CIGS, but contains only earth abundant, non-toxic elements and has a near optimal direct band gap energy of 1.4~1.6 ev and a large absorption coefficient of ${\sim}10^4\;cm^{-1}$. The CZTS absorber layers are grown and investigated by various fabrication methods, such as thermal evaporation, e-beam evaporation with a post sulfurization, sputtering, non-vacuum sol-gel, pulsed laser, spray-pyrolysis method and electrodeposition technique. In the present work, we report an alternative method for large area deposition of CZTS thin films that is potentially high throughput and inexpensive when used to produce monolithically integrated solar panel modules. Specifically, we have developed an aqueous chemical approach based on chemical bath deposition (CBD) with a subsequent sulfurization heat treatment. Samples produced by our method were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, absorbance and photoluminescence. The results show that this inexpensive and relatively benign process produces thin films of CZTS exhibiting uniform composition, kesterite crystal structure, and good optical properties. A preliminary solar cell device was fabricated to demonstrate rectifying and photovoltaic behavior.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.1.1-1.1
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• 2011

Printed electronics based on the direct writing of solution processable functional materials have been of paramount interest and importance. In this talk, the synthesis of printable inorganic functional materials (conductors and semiconductors) for thin-film transistors (TFTs) and photovoltaic devices, device fabrication based on a printing technique, and specific characteristics of devices are presented. For printable conductor materials, Ag ink is designed to achieve the long-term dispersion stability and good adhesion property on a glass substrate, and Cu ink is sophisticatedly formulated to endow the oxidation stability in air and even aqueous solvent system. The both inks were successfully printed onto either polymer or glass substrate, exhibiting the superior conductivity comparable to that of bulk one. In addition, the organic thin-film transistor based on the printed metal source/drain electrode exhibits the electrical performance comparable to that of a transistor based on a vacuum deposited Au electrode. For printable amorphous oxide semiconductors (AOSs), I introduce the noble ways to resolve the critical problems, a high processing temperature above $400^{\circ}C$ and low mobility of AOSs annealed at a low temperature below $400^{\circ}C$. The dependency of TFT performances on the chemical structure of AOSs is compared and contrasted to clarify which factor should be considered to realize the low temperature annealed, high performance AOSs. For photovoltaic application, CI(G)S nanoparticle ink for solution processable high performance solar cells is presented. By overcoming the critical drawbacks of conventional solution processed CI(G)S absorber layers, the device quality dense CI(G)S layer is obtained, affording 7.3% efficiency CI(G)S photovoltaic device.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.08a
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• pp.294-294
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• 2010

Over the last decade, dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) has attracted much attention due to the high solar-to-electricity conversion efficiency up to 10% as well as low cost compared with p-n junction photovoltaic devices. DSSC is composed of mesoporous TiO2 nanoparticle electrodes coated with photo-sensitized dye, the redox electrolyte and the metal counter electrode. The performances of DSSC are dependent on constituent materials and interface as well as device structure. Replacing the heavy glass substrate with plastic materials is crucial to enlarge DSSC applications for the competition with inorganic based thin film photovoltaic devices. One of the biggest problems with plastic substrates is their low-temperature tolerance, which makes sintering of the photoelectrode films impossible. Therefore, the most important step toward the low-temperature DSSC fabrication is how to enhance interparticle connection at the temperature lower than $150^{\circ}C$. In this talk, the key issues for high efficiency plastic solar cells will be discussed, and several strategies for the improvement of interconnection of nanoparticles and bendability will also be proposed.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.60-65
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• 2020

In perovskite solar cells with planar heterojunction configuration, selection of proper charge-transporting layers is very important to achieve stable and efficient device. Here, we developed solution processible Cu doped NiO_x (Cu:NiO_x) thin film as a hole-transporting layer (HTL) in p-i-n structured methylammonium lead trihalide (MAPbI₃) perovskite solar cell. The transmittance and thickness of NiO_x HTL is optimized by control the spin-coating rate and Cu is additionally doped to improve the surface morphology of undoped NiO_x thin film and hole-extraction properties. Consequently, a perovskite solar cell containing Cu:NiO_x HTL with optimal doping ratio of Cu exhibits a power conversion efficiency of 14.6%.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.263-274
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• 1996

Titanium dioxide ($TiO_{2}$) film has been widely used as anti-reflection coating for solar cells but not as masking oxide for metallisation and diffusion of impurities. In this paper we have investigated the properties of $TiO_{2}$ for possible incorporation into solar cell processing sequence. Thus the use of a spray deposition system to form the $TiO_{2}$ film and the characterisation of this film to ascertain its suitability to solar cell processing. The spray-on $TiO_{2}$ film was found to be resistant to all the chemicals used in conjunction with solar cell processing. The high temperature anealing (in oxygen ambient) of the spray-on $TiO_{2}$ film resulted in an increased refractive index, which indicated the growth of an underlying thin film of $SiO_{2}$ film for the passivation of silicon surface which would reduce the recombination activities of the fabricated device. Most importantly, the successful incorporation of the $TiO{2}$ film will lead to the reduction of the many high temperature processing steps of solar cell to only one.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2010.05a
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• pp.11.1-11.1
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• 2010

As one of the non-vacuum, low temperature fabrication route, electrochemical synthesis has been focused for pursuing the cost-effective pathway to produce high efficiency photovoltaic devices. Especially the availability to form the thin film structure on flexible substrate would be the great advantage of electrochemical process. The successful synthesis of the most favorable absorber materials such as CdTe and CIGS has been reported by many researchers, however, the efficiency of electrochemically synthesized could not exceed that from vacuum process, because of microstructural controllability and compositional variation on devices. In this study, we represent the effect of process parameters on the microstructure and composition of compound semiconductor during the synthesis, and propose the photovoltaic characteristics of electrochemically synthesized solar cells.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Illuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.107-112
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• 2013

Cu(In,Ga)$Se_2$ (CIGS) thin films were annealed on molybdenium/sodalime glass substrates of $300{\times}300mm^2$ by rapid thermal processing (RTP) with 2-step rising-temperature times in $N_2$ ambient. Morphological property, structural characteristics and chemical composition of the precursor of CIGS thin films were influenced directly with a change of $1^{st}$-step rising-temperature time in RTP whereas there is no significant difference with the different $2^{nd}$-step rising-temperature time (final crystallization temperature). The shorter $1^{st}$-step rising-temperature time in RTP obtained the higher photovoltaic cell efficiency from 7.469% to 8.479% even though the ideal composition in CIGS thin films could not be accoplished in this study.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2003.07a
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• pp.331-334
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• 2003

Photovoltaics is considered as one of the most promising new energy technology, because its energy source is omni present, pollution-free and inexhaustive. It is agreed that these solar cells must be thin film type because thin film process is cost-efficive in the fact that it uses much less raw materials and can be continuous. The defect chalcopyrite material $CuIn_3Se_5$ has been identified as playing an essential role in efficient photovoltaic action in $CuInSe_2$-based devicesm It has been reported to be of n-type conductivity, forming a p-n junction with its p-type counterpart $CuInSe_2$. Because the most efficient cells consist of the $Cu(In,Ga)Se_2$ quarternary, knowledge of some physical properties of the Ga-containing defect chalcopyrite $Cu(In,Ga)_3Se_5$ may help us better understand the junction phenomena in such devices.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.21 no.8
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• pp.432-438
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• 2011

In this study, chemical bath deposited (CBD) indium sulfide buffer layers were investigated as a possible substitution for the cadmium sulfide buffer layer in CIGS thin film solar cells. The performance of the $In_2S_3$/CIGS solar cell dramatically improved when the films were annealed at $300^{\circ}C$ in inert gas after the buffer layer was grown on the CIGS film. The thickness of the indium sulfide buffer layer was 80 nm, but decreased to 60 nm after annealing. From the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy it was found that the chemical composition of the layer changed to indium oxide and indium sulfide from the as-deposited indium hydroxide and sulfate states. Furthermore, the overall atomic concentration of the oxygen in the buffer layer decreased because deoxidation occurred during annealing. In addition, an In-thin layer was inserted between the indium sulfide buffer and CIGS in order to modify the $In_2S_3$/CIGS interface. The $In_2S_3$/CIGS solar cell with the In interlayer showed improved photovoltaic properties in the $J_{sc}$ and FF values. Furthermore, the $In_2S_3$/CIGS solar cells showed higher quantum efficiency in the short wavelength region. However, the quantum efficiency in the long wavelength region was still poor due to the thick buffer layer.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.21-26
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• 2015

High efficiency $Cu(In,Ga)Se_2$ solar cells are generally prepared above $500^{\circ}C$. Lowering the process temperature can allow wider selection of substrate material and process window. In this paper, the three-stage co-evaporation process widely used to grow CIGS thin film at high temperature was modified to reduce the maximum substrate temperature. Below $400^{\circ}C$ the CIGS films show poor crystal growth and lower solar cell performance, in spite of external Na doping by NaF. As a new approach, Cu source instead of Cu with Se in the second stage was applied on the $(In,Ga)_2Se_3$ precursor at $400^{\circ}C$ and achieved a better crystal growth. The distribution of Ga in the films produce by new method were investigated and solar cells were fabricated using these films.