• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2009.11a
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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).

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.84-95
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• 2021

The power conversion efficiency of Cu₂ZnSnSe₄ (CZTSe) solar cells depends on the absorber layer thickness; however, changes in the characteristics of the cells with varying absorber layer thickness are unclear. In this study, we investigated the changes in the characteristics of CZTSe solar cells for varying absorber layer thickness. Five absorber thicknesses were employed: CZTSe1 2.78 ㎛, CZTSe2 1.01 ㎛, CZTSe3 0.55 ㎛, CZTSe4 0.29 ㎛, and CZTSe5 0.15-0.23 ㎛. The efficiency of the CZTSe solar cells decreased as the absorber thickness decreased, resulting in power conversion efficiencies of 10.45% (CZTSe1), 8.67% (CZTSe2), 7.14% (CZTSe3), 3.44% (CZTSe4), and 1.54% (CZTSe5). As the thickness of the CZTSe absorber layer decreased, the electron-hole recombination at the grain boundaries and the absorber-back-contact interface increased. This caused an increase in the current loss, owing to light loss in the long-wavelength region. In addition, as the thickness of the CZTSe absorber layer decreased, more ZnSe was produced, and the resulting defects and defect clusters led to an open-circuit voltage loss.

• 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.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.06a
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• pp.228-231
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• 2006

This paper briefly introduces silicon based thin film solar cells: amorphous (a-Si:H), microcrystalline ${\mu}c-Si:H$ single junction and $a-Si:H/{\mu}c-Si:H$ tandem solar cells. The major difference of a-Si:H and ${\mu}c-Si:H$ cells comes from electro-optical properties of intrinsic Si-films (active layer) that absorb incident photon and generate electron-hole pairs. The a-Si:H film has energy band-gap (Eg) of 1.7-1.8eV and solar cells incorporating this wide Eg a-Si:H material as active layer commonly give high voltage and low current, when illuminated, compared to ${\mu}c-Si:H$ solar cells that employ low Eg (1.1eV) material. This Eg difference of two materials make possible tandem configuration in order to effectively use incident photon energy. The $a-Si:H/{\mu}c-Si:H$ tandem solar cells, therefore, have a great potential for low cost photovoltaic device by its various advantages such as low material cost by thin-film structure on low cost substrate instead of expensive c-Si wafer and high conversion efficiency by tandem structure. In this paper, the structure, process and operation properties of Si-based thin-film solar cells are discussed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2003.07b
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• pp.995-998
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• 2003

This paper presents the deposition of poly-Si thin-film and fabrication of a solar cell by VHF-PECVD method. The poly-Si thin films. and pin-type solar cells are fabricated using multi-chamber cluster tool system. A 7.4% conversion efficiency was achieved from poly-Si thin film solar cells with total thickness less than $5{\mu}m$. The physical characteristic was measured by Raman spectroscopy, solar cell characteristic was measured under AM1.5 illumination.

• Solar Energy
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.3-6
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• 1996

태양광선을 전류로 직접 변화시키는 과정(Photo-voltamic)은 가장 근사하게 에너지를 얻어내는 방법중의 하나이다. 그러나, 이러한 태양전류가 미래 에너지의 원천으로서 가치를 갖게 하기 위해서는 새로 개발된 태양전지(Solar Cell)의 가격이 아주 저렴해야 한다. 스위스 대학교의 몇 개의 연구소는 이러한 태양에너지 개발에 대한 기술(Solar Technology)에 있어서 세계에서도 첨단적인 위치에 놓여있다. "고전적이고 재래식 재료가 새옷을 입고 나왔다"고 최근 스위스의 Neuenburg 대학의 Institute of Microtechnic(IMT)에서 개발한 Micromorphe Solar Cell을 두고 얘기하고 있다. 왜냐하면 이 새로 개발된 Solar Cell은 역시 재래에 늘 사용하던 Silicium을 부분적으로 이용하고 있기 때문이다. 그러나, 이 Solar Cell에서는 Silicium을 그냥 사용하지 않고 Thin Film형태로 변형해서 사용하고 있다. 이 Silicium Thin Film은 값이 저렴하면서도 효율적으로 태양전류를 태양광선에서 생산할 수 있게 하는 매우 기대가 큰 재료로 등장하고 있다.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2015.08a
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• pp.257.2-257.2
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• 2015

In this paper, we report on the 10.33% efficient thin film/bulk tandem solar cells with the top cell made of amorphous silicon thin film and p-type bulk crystalline silicon bottom cell. The tunneling junction layers were used the doped nanocrystalline Si layers. It has to allow an ohmic and low resistive connection. For player and n-layer, crystalline volume fraction is ~86%, ~88% and dark conductivity is $3.28{\times}10-2S/cm$, $3.03{\times}10-1S/cm$, respectively. Optimization of the tunneling junction results in fill factor of 66.16 % and open circuit voltage of 1.39 V. The open circuit voltage was closed to the sum of those of the sub-cells. This tandem structure could enable the effective development of a new concept of high-efficiency and low cost cells.

• Current Applied Physics
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• v.18 no.12
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• pp.1571-1576
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• 2018

Recent study shows that the main reason for limiting CZTS device performance lies in the low open circuit voltage, and crucial factor that could affect the $V_{oc}$ is secondary phases like ZnS existing in absorber layer and its interfaces. In this work, the $Cu_2ZnSnS_4$ thin film solar cells were prepared by sputtering CuSn and CuZn alloy targets. Through tuning the Zn/Sn ratios of the CZTS thin films, the crystal structure, morphology, chemical composition and phase purity of CZTS thin films were characterized by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) equipped with an energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS) and Raman spectroscopy. The statistics data show that the CZTS solar cell with a ratio of Zn/Sn = 1.2 have the best power convention efficiency of 5.07%. After HCl etching process, the CZTS thin film solar cell with the highest efficiency 5.41% was obtained, which demonstrated that CZTS film solar cells with high efficiency could be developed by sputtering CuSn and CuZn alloy targets.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.153-153
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• 2011

유리나 폴리머를 기판으로 하는 TFT(Thin film transistor), solar cell에서는 낮은 공정 온도에서($200{\sim}500^{\circ}C$) amorphous semiconductor thin film을 poly-crystal semiconductor thin film으로 결정화 시키는 기술이 매우 중요하게 대두 되고 있다. Ge은 Si에 비해 높은 carrier mobility와 낮은 녹는점을 가지므로, 비 저항이 낮을 뿐만 아니라 더 낮은 온도에서 결정화 할 수 있다. 하지만 일반적으로 쓰이는 Ge의 결정화 방법은 비교적 높은 열처리 온도를 필요로 하거나, 결정화된 원소에 남아있는 metal이 불순물 역할을 한다는 문제점, 그리고 불균일한 결정크기를 만든다는 단점이 있었다. 그 중에서도 현재 가장 많이 쓰이고 있는 MIC, MILC는 metal과 a-Ge이 접촉되는 interface나, grain boundary diffusion에 의해 핵 생성이 일어나고, 결정이 성장하는 메커니즘을 가지고 있으므로 단순 증착과 열처리 만으로는 앞서 말한 단점을 극복하는데 한계를 가지고 있다. 이에 PIII&D 장비를 이용하면, 이온 주입된 원소들이 모재와 반응 할 수 있는 표면적이 커짐으로 핵 생성을 조절 할 수 있을 뿐만 아니라, 이온 주입 시 발생하는 self annealing effect로 결정 크기까지도 조절할 수 있다. 또한 이러한 모든 process가 한 진공 장비 내에서 이루어지므로 장비의 단순화와, 공정간 단계별로 발생하는 불순물과 표면산화를 막을 수 있으므로 절연체 위에 저항이 낮고, hall mobility가 높은 poly-crystalline Ge thin film을 만들 수 있다. 본 연구에서는, 주로 핵 생성과정에서 seed를 만드는 이온주입 조건과, 결정 성장이 일어나는 증착 조건에 따라서 Ge의 결정방향과 크기가 많은 차이를 보이는데, 이는 HR-XRD(High resolution X-ray Diffractometer)와 Raman spectroscopy를 이용하여 측정 하였으며, SEM과 AFM으로 결정의 크기와 표면 거칠기를 측정하였다. 또한 Hall effect measurement를 통해 poly-crystalline thin film 의 저항과 hall mobility를 측정하였다.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.260-262
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• 2005

Thickness optimization of heavily doped p-type seeding layer was studied to improve performance of thin film silicon solar cell. We used liquid phase epitaxy (LPE) to grow active layer of $25{\mu}m$ thickness on $p^+$ seeding layer. The cells with $p^+$ seeding layer of $10{\mu}m\;to\;50{\mu}m$ thickness were fabricated. The highest efficiency of a cell is 12.95%, with $V_{oc}=633mV,\;J_{sc}=26.5mA/cm^2$, FF = 77.15%. The $p^+$ seeding layer of the cell is $20{\mu}m$ thick. As thicker seeding layer than $20{\mu}m$, the performance of the cell was degraded. The results demonstrate that the part of the recombination current is due to the heavily doped seeding layer. Thickness of heavily doped p-type seeding layer was optimized to $20{\mu}m$. The performance of solar cell is expected to improve with the incorporation of light trapping as texturing and AR coating.