• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.28-33
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• 2008

Lanthanum modified lead zirconate titanate ($Pb_{1.1}La_{0.08}Zr_{0.65}Ti_{0.35}O_3$) thin films were fabricated on indium doped tin oxide (ITO)-coated glass substrate by R.F magnetron sputtering method. The thin films were deposited at $500^{\circ}C$ and post-annealed with various temperature ($550-750^{\circ}C$) by rapid thermal annealing technique. The structure and morphology of the films were characterized with X-ray diffraction (XRD) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) respectively. The hysteresis loops and fatigue properties of thin films were measured by precision material analyzer. As the annealing temperature was increased, the remnant polarization value was increased from $10.6{\mu}C/cm^2$ to $31.4{\mu}C/cm^2$, and coercive field was reduced from 79.9 kV/cm to 60.9 kV/cm. As a result of polarization endurance analysis, the remnant polarization of PLZT thin films annealed at $700^{\circ}C$ was decreased 15% after $10^9$ switching cycles using 1MHz square wave form at ${\pm}5V$.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.08a
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• pp.221-221
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• 2012

Small-molecule organic photovoltaic cells have recently attracted growing attention due to their potential for the low-cost fabrication of flexible and lightweight solar modules. The PVP/Ag nanoparticles were synthesized by the reaction of poly vinylpyrrolidone (PVP) and silver nitrate at $150^{\circ}C$. In the reaction, the size of the nanoparticles was controlled by relative mole fractions between PVP and Ag. The PVP/Ag nanoparticles with various sizes were then spin coated on the patterned ITO glass prior to the deposition of the PEDOT:PSS hole transport layer. The scattering of the incident light caused by these incorporated nanoparticles resulted in an increase in the path length of the light through the active layer and hence the enhancement of the light absorption. This scattering effect increased as the size of the nanoparticles increased, but it was offset by the decrease in total transmittance caused by the non-transparent nanoparticles. As a result, the maximum power conversion efficiency, 0.96% which was the value enhanced by 14% compared to the cell without incorporation of nanoparticles, was obtained when the mole fraction of PVP:Ag was 24:1 and the size of the nanoparticles was 20~40 nm.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.08a
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• pp.247-247
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• 2012

Plasmon subwavelength nanostructures enable the structurally modulated color due to the resonance conditions for the specific wavelength range of light with the nanoscale hole arrays on a metal layer. While the unique properties offered from a single layer of metal may open up the potential applications of integrated devices to displays and sensors, fabrication requirements in nanoscale, typically on the order of or smaller than the wavelength of light in a corresponding medium can limit the cost-effective implementation of the plasmonic nanostructures. Simpler nanoscale replication technologies based on the soft lithography or roll-to-roll nanoimprinting can introduce economically feasible manufacturing process for these devices. Such replication requires an optimal design of a master template to produce a stamp that can be applied for a roll-to-roll nanoimprinting. In this paper, a master mold with subwavelength nanostructures is fabricated and optimized using focused ion beam for the applications to nanoimprinting process. Au thin film layer is deposited by sputtering on a glass that serves as a dielectric substrate. Focused ion beam milling (FIB, JEOL JIB-4601F) is used to fabricate surface plasmon subwavelength nanostructures made of periodic hole arrays. The light spectrum of the fabricated nanostructures is characterized by using UV-Vis-NIR spectrophotometer (Agilent, Cary 5000) and the surface morphology is measured by using atomic force microscope (AFM, Park System XE-100) and scanning electron microscope (SEM, JEOL JSM-7100F). Relationship between the parameters of the hole arrays and the corresponding spectral characteristics and their potential applications are also discussed.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.241-244
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• 2012

Antimony doped tin oxide (ATO) thin films on glass substrate were prepared by the chemical solution deposition (CSD) method, using sol-gel solution synthesized by non-alkoxide precursors and the sol-gel route. The crystallinity and electrical properties of ATO thin films were investigated as a function of the annealing condition (both annealing environments and temperatures), and antimony (Sb) doping concentration. Electrical resistivity, carrier concentration, Hall mobility and optical transmittance of ATO thin films were improved by Sb doping up to 5~8 mol% and annealing in a low vacuum atmosphere, compared to the undoped tin oxide counterpart. 5 mol% Sb doped ATO film annealed at $550^{\circ}C$ in a low vacuum atmosphere showed the highest electrical properties, with electrical resistivity of about $8{\sim}10{\times}10^{-3}{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$, and optical transmittance of ~85% in the visible range. Our research demonstrates the feasibility of low-cost solution-processed transparent conductive oxide thin films, by controlling the appropriate doping concentration and annealing conditions.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.08a
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• pp.422-422
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• 2012

투명전극 산화막은 태양전지, 평판 디스플레이 등의 투명전극과 같은 광전자 소자에 사용되고 있다. 투명 전도성 산화막으로서 ITO (Indium tin oxide)는 높은 투과도, 낮은 비저항, 높은 일함수 등의 장점을 가지고 있어서 그동안 널리 사용되어 왔다. 그러나 In의 희소성으로 인한 고가격 문제 때문에 이를 대체하기 위해 불순물을 도핑한 ZnO (Zinc oxide)에 관한 연구가 활발히 진행되어 왔다. ZnO의 전기전도도를 높이기 위해 일반적으로 Al, Ga, B와 같은 3족 원소가 ZnO의 n형 도펀트로 널리 사용된다. 그 중에서 Al은 반응성이 커서 박막 증착 중에 산화되기 쉬운 반면 낮은 생산단가, 우수한 전기적 및 광학적 특성을 보이기 때문에 투명 전극으로서 Al-doped ZnO (AZO)가 많이 이용되고 있다. 본 연구에서는 rf 마그네트론 스퍼터링 공정을 이용하여 glass 기판 위에 Al-doped ZnO (AZO) 투명 전도막을 증착하였고, 수명 및 신뢰성에 영향에 미치는 주요 인자로서 온도, 온도 사이클 및 습도에 따른 AZO 박막의 열화 특성에 대한 연구를 진행하였다. 또한, 온도 사이클, 고온 및 고온고습 환경에 장시간 노출된 AZO 박막들의 성능 저하 원인들을 미세구조 관찰, 전기적 및 광학적 특성 변화들을 연계하여 규명하고자 하였다.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.08a
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• pp.426-426
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• 2012

The CIGS absorber has outstanding advantages in the absorption coefficient and conversation efficiency. The CIGS thin film solar cells have been researched for commercialization and increasing the conversion efficiency. CIG precursors were deposited on the Mo coated glass substrate by magnetron sputtering with multilayer structure, which is CuIn/CuGa/CuIn/CuGa. Then, the metallic precursors were selenized under high Se pressure by RTP method which included. Se vapor was supplied using Se cracker cell instead of toxic hydrogen selenide gas. Se beam flux was controlled by variable reservoir zone (R-zone) temperature during selenization process. Cracked Se source reacted with CIG precursors in a small quantity of Se because of small size molecules with high activation energy. The CIGS thin films were studied by FESEM, EDX, and XRD. The CIGS solar cell was also developed by layering of CdS and ZnO layers. And the conversion efficiency of the CIGS solar cell was characterization. It was reached at 6.99% without AR layer.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.08a
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• pp.186-186
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• 2012

This report investigates a new synthetic route and the size-dependent optical and electrical properties of PbS nanocrystal quantum dots (NQDs) in diameters ranging between 1.5 and 6 nm. Particularly we synthesize ultra-small sized PbS NQDs having extreme quantum confinement with 1.5~2.9 nm in diameter (2.58~1.5 eV in first exciton energy) for the first time by adjusting growth temperature and growth time. In this region, the Stokes shift increases as decreasing size, which is testimony to the highly quantum confinement effect of ultra-small sized PbS NQDs. To find out the electrical properties, we fabricate self-assembled films of PbS NQDs using layer by layer (LBL) spin-coating method and replacing the original ligands with oleic acid to short ligands with 1, 2-ethandithiol (EDT) in the course. The use of capping ligands (EDT) allows us to achieve effective electrical transport in the arrays of solution processed PbS NQDs. These high-quality films apply to Schottky solar cell made in an glass/ITO/PbS/LiF/Al structure and thin-film transistor varying the PbS NQDs diameter 1.5~6 nm. We achieve the highest open-circuit voltage (＜0.6 V) in Schottky solar cell ever using PbS NQDs with first exciton energy 2.58 eV.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.296-296
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• 2016

ITO films doped with a small amount of high-permittivity materials not only retain the basic properties of ITO films but also improve some of their properties. We report the highly conductive and transparent (ITO:Zr) films with various substrate (RT to 300oC) temperatures on glass substrate for the HIT solar cell applications. We observed a decrease in sheet resistance from 36 to $11.8{\Omega}/{\Box}$ with the increasing substrate temperature from RT to 300oC, respectively. The ITO:Zr films showed also lowest resistivity of $1.38{\times}10-4{\Omega}.cm$ and high mobility of 42.37cm-3, respectively. The surface and grain boundaries are improved with the increase of substrate temperature as shown by SEM and AFM surface morphologies. The highly conductive and transparent ITO:Zr films were employed as front electrode in HIT solar cell and the best performance of device was found to be Voc = 710 mV, Jsc = 33.70 mA/cm2, FF = 0.742, ${\eta}=17.76%$ at the substrate temperature of $200^{\circ}C$.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.169-169
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• 2016

In this paper, we report electrical, optical and structural properties of Al-doped zinc oxide (AZO) thin films deposited at different substrate temperatures and pressures. The films were prepared by radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering on glass substrates in argon (Ar) ambient. The X-ray diffraction analysis showed that the AZO films deposited at room temperature (RT) and 20 Pa were mostly oriented along a-axis with preferred orientation along (100) direction. There was an improvement in resistivity ($3.7{\times}10^{-3}{\Omega}-cm$) transmittance (95%) at constant substrate temperature (RT) and working pressure (20 Pa) using the Hall-effect measurement system and UV-vis spectroscopy, respectively. Our results have promising applications in low-cost transparent electronics, such as the thin-film solar cells and thin-film transistors due to favourable deposition conditions. Furthermore our film deposition method offers a procedure for preparing highly oriented (100) AZO films.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.276.2-276.2
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• 2016

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) are promising candidates for light-to-energy conversion devices due to their low-cost, easy fabrication and relative high conversion efficiency. An important component of DSCs is counter electrode (CE) collect electrons from external circuit and reduct I3- to I-. The conventional CEs are thermally decomposed Pt on fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) glass substrates, which have shown excellent performance and stability. However, Pt is not suitable in terms of cost effect. In this report, we demonstrated that nickel sulfide thin films by atomic layer deposition (ALD)-using Nickel(1-dimethylamino-2-methyl-2-butanolate)2 and hydrogen sulfide at low temperatures of $90-200^{\circ}C$-could be good CEs in DSCs. Notably, ALD allows the thin films to grow with good reproducibility, precise thickness control and excellent conformality at the angstrom or monolayer level. The nickel sulfide films were characterized using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, hall measurements and cyclic voltammetry. The ALD grown nickel sulfide thin films showed high catalytic activity for the reduction of I3- to I- in DSC. The DSCs with the ALD-grown nickel sulfide thin films as CEs showed the solar cell efficiency of 7.12% which is comparable to that of the DSC with conventional Pt coated counter electrode (7.63%).