• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.24 no.9
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• pp.458-464
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• 2014

Light scattering enhancement is widely used to enhance the optical absorption efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells. In this work, we systematically analyzed the effects of spherical voids distributed as light-scattering centers in photoanode films made of an assembly of zinc oxide nanoparticles. Spherical voids in electrode films were formed using a sacrificial template of polystyrene (PS) spheres. The diameter and volume concentration of these spheres was varied to optimize the efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells. The effects of film thickness on this efficiency was also examined. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy was performed to study electron transport in the electrodes. The highest power conversion efficiency of 4.07 % was observed with $12{\mu}m$ film thickness. This relatively low optimum thickness of the electrode film is due to the enhanced light absorption caused by the light scattering centers of voids distributed in the film.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.64-68
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• 2012

We have successfully demonstrated a bandgap alteration of transparent zinc oxide (ZnO) thin film with Mg dopant by using sol-gel spin coating technique. By increasing the dopant from 0 to 30 atomic percent (at.%), a decrement value in the cutoff is observed, where the absorption edge shifts continuously to the shorter wavelength side, towards 300 nm. This resulted in a significant bandgap increment from 3.28 to 3.57 eV. However, the transmittance of the thin film at 350-800 nm gradually downgraded, from 93 to 80 % which is most probably due to the grain size that becomes bigger, and it also affected the electrical properties. The decrement from 45 to 0.05 mA at +10 V was observed in the I-V characteristics, concluding the significant relationship; where higher optical bandgap materials will exhibit lower conductivity. These findings may be useful in optoelectronics devices.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2015.08a
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• pp.215.2-215.2
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• 2015

We fabricated dual active layer (DAL) thin film transistors (TFTs) with indium tin zinc oxide (ITZO) and indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO) thin film layers using solution process. The ITZO and IGZO layer were used as the front and back channel, respectively. In order to investigate the bias stress stability of ITZO SAL (single active layer) and ITZO/IGZO DAL TFT, a gate bias stress of 10 V was applied for 1500 s under the dark condition. The SAL TFT composed of ITZO layer shows a poor positive bias stability of ${\delta}VTH$ of 13.7 V, whereas ${\delta}VTH$ of ITZO/IGZO DAL TFT was very small as 2.6 V. In order to find out the evidence of improved bias stress stability, we calculated the total trap density NT near the channel/gate insulator interface. The calculated NT of DAL and SAL TFT were $4.59{\times}10^{11}$ and $2.03{\times}10^{11}cm^{-2}$, respectively. The reason for improved bias stress stability is due to the reduction of defect sites such as pin-hole and pores in the active layer.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.23 no.10
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• pp.747-751
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• 2010

In the study, the characteristics of the etched Zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films surface, the etch rate of ZnO thin film in $Cl_2/BCl_3/Ar$ plasma was investigated. The maximum ZnO etch rate of 53 nm/min was obtained for $Cl_2/BCl_3/Ar$=3:16:4 sccm gas mixture. According to the x-ray diffraction (XRD) and atomic force microscopy (AFM), the etched ZnO thin film was investigated to the chemical reaction of the ZnO surface in $Cl_2/BCl_3/Ar$ plasma. The field emission auger electron spectroscopy (FE-AES) analysis showed an elemental analysis from the etched surfaces. According to the etching time, the ZnO thin film of etched was obtained to The AES depth-profile analysis. We used to atomic force microscopy to determine the roughness of the surface. So, the root mean square of ZnO thin film was 17.02 in $Cl_2/BCl_3/Ar$ plasma. Based on these data, the ion-assisted chemical reaction was proposed as the main etch mechanism for the plasmas.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.30 no.8
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• pp.491-495
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• 2017

We investigated solution-processed indium-zinc oxide (IZO) thin-film transistors (TFTs) by inserting a 2-(4-biphenylyl)-5-(4-tert-butylphenyl)-1,3,4-oxadiazole (PBD) buffer layer. This buffer layer efficiently tuned the energy level between the semiconducting oxide channel and metal electrode by increasing charge extraction, thereby enhancing the overall device performance: the IZO TFT with embedded PBD layer (thickness: 5 nm; width: $2,000{\mu}m$; length: $200{\mu}m$) exhibited a field-effect mobility of $1.31cm^2V^{-1}s^{-1}$, threshold voltage of 0.12 V, subthreshold swing of $0.87V\;decade^{-1}$, and on/off current ratio of $9.28{\times}10^5$.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.13-16
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• 2012

Zinc oxide (ZnO) films were deposited by an RF magnetron sputtering system with the RF power of 200W and 300W and flow rate of oxygen gases of 20 and 30 sccm, in order to research the growth of ZnO on carbon doped silicon oxide (SiOC) thin film. The reflectance of SiOC film on Si film deposited by the sputtering decreased with increasing the oxygen flow rate in the range of long wavelength. In comparison between ZnO/Si and ZnO/SiOC/Si thin film, the reflectance of ZnO/SiOC/Si film was inversed that of ZnO/Si film in the rage of 200~1000 nm. The transmittance of ZnO film increased with increasing the oxygen gas flow rate because of the transition from conduction band to oxygen interstitial band due to the oxygen interstitial (Oi) sites. The low reflectance and the high transmittance of ZnO film was suitable properties to use for the front electrode in the display or solar cell.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.30 no.8
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• pp.484-490
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• 2017

We investigated the rewritable operation of a non-volatile memory device composed of Al (top)/$TiO_2$/indium-zinc-oxide (IZO)/Al (bottom). The oxygen-deficient IZO layer of the device was spin-coated with 0.1 M indium nitrate hydrate and 0.1 M zinc acetate dehydrate as precursor solutions, and the $TiO_2$ layer was fabricated by atomic layer deposition. The oxygen vacancies IZO layer of an active component annealed at $400^{\circ}C$ using thermal annealing and it was proven to be in oxygen vacancies and oxygen binding environments with OH species and heavy metal ions investigated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The device, which operates at low voltages (less than 3.5 V), exhibits non-volatile memory behavior consistent with resistive-switching properties and an ON/OFF ratio of approximately $3.6{\times}10^3$ at 2.5 V.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.20 no.11
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• pp.623-627
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• 2010

Semiconducting metal oxides have been frequently used as gas sensing materials. While zinc oxide is a popular material for such applications, structures such as nanowires, nanorods and nanotubes, due to their large surface area, are natural candidates for use as gas sensors of higher sensitivity. The compound ZnO has been studied, due to its chemical and thermal stability, for use as an n-type semiconducting gas sensor. ZnO has a large exciton binding energy and a large bandgap energy at room temperature. Also, ZnO is sensitive to toxic and combustible gases. The NO gas properties of zinc oxide-single wall carbon nanotube (ZnO-SWCNT) composites were investigated. Fabrication includes the deposition of porous SWCNTs on thermally oxidized $SiO_2$ substrates followed by sputter deposition of Zn and thermal oxidation at $400^{\circ}C$ in oxygen. The Zn films were controlled to 50 nm thicknesses. The effects of microstructure and gas sensing properties were studied for process optimization through comparison of ZnO-SWCNT composites with ZnO film. The basic sensor response behavior to 10 ppm NO gas were checked at different operation temperatures in the range of $150-300^{\circ}C$. The highest sensor responses were observed at $300^{\circ}C$ in ZnO film and $250^{\circ}C$ in ZnO-SWCNT composites. The ZnO-SWCNT composite sensor showed a sensor response (~1300%) five times higher than that of pure ZnO thin film sensors at an operation temperature of $250^{\circ}C$.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.187-187
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• 2012

Solution-processed metal-alloy oxides such as indium zinc oxide (IZO), indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO) has been extensively researched due to their high electron mobility, environmental stability, optical transparency, and solution-processibility. In spite of their excellent material properties, however, there remains a challenging problem for utilizing IZO or IGZO in electronic devices: the supply shortage of indium (In). The cost of indium is high, what is more, indium is becoming more expensive and scarce and thus strategically important. Therefore, developing an alternative route to improve carrier mobility of solution-processable ZnO is critical and essential. Here, we introduce a simple route to achieve high-performance and low-temperature solution-processed ZnO thin film transistors (TFTs) by employing alkali-metal doping such as Li, Na, K or Rb. Li-doped ZnO TFTs exhibited excellent device performance with a field-effect mobility of $7.3cm^2{\cdot}V-1{\cdot}s-1$ and an on/off current ratio of more than 107. Also, in case of higher drain voltage operation (VD=60V), the field effect mobility increased up to $11.45cm^2{\cdot}V-1{\cdot}s-1$. These all alkali metal doped ZnO TFTs were fabricated at maximum process temperature as low as $300^{\circ}C$. Moreover, low-voltage operating ZnO TFTs was fabricated with the ion gel gate dielectrics. The ultra high capacitance of the ion gel gate dielectrics allowed high on-current operation at low voltage. These devices also showed excellent operational stability.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.20 no.8
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• pp.401-407
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• 2010

We studied the influence of different types of metal electrodes on the performance of solution-processed zinc tin oxide (ZTO) thin-film transistors. The ZTO thin-film was obtained by spin-coating the sol-gel solution made from zinc acetate and tin acetate dissolved in 2-methoxyethanol. Various metals, Al, Au, Ag and Cu, were used to make contacts with the solution-deposited ZTO layers by selective deposition through a metal shadow mask. Contact resistance between the metal electrode and the semiconductor was obtained by a transmission line method (TLM). The device based on an Al electrode exhibited superior performance as compared to those based on other metals. Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM) allowed us to measure the work function of the oxide semiconductor to understand the variation of the device performance as a function of the types metal electrode. The solution-processed ZTO contained nanopores that resulted from the burnout of the organic species during the annealing. This different surface structure associated with the solution-processed ZTO gave a rise to a different work function value as compared to the vacuum-deposited counterpart. More oxygen could be adsorbed on the nanoporous solution-processed ZTO with large accessible surface areas, which increased its work function. This observation explained why the solution-processed ZTO makes an ohmic contact with the Al electrode.