• Journal of Korea Foundry Society
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.29-33
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• 2010

The microstructure of Al-5%Mg based alloy mainly consists of aluminum matrix with a small amount of AlMn phase. The addition of Sc or Zn to the base alloy significantly improved the as-cast tensile strength, while the addition of Fe deteriorated both strength and ductility. Although the Al-5%Mg based alloy was not heat-treatable, aging hardening could be observed in the case that Sc or Zn was added to the base alloy. TEM analysis showed that very fine AlSc or AlMgZn precipitates were formed after T6 heat treatment, resulting in enhanced strength. The corrosion resistance measured as corrosion potential was found to decrease a little by adding Zn, whereas other alloying elements were not clearly influential.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.15 no.8
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• pp.518-520
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• 2005

Effects of the $O_2/Ar$ flow ratio in the sputtering process on the crystallinity, surface roughness, carrier concentration, carrier mobility, and optical properties of Al-doped ZnO thin films deposited on sapphire (001) substrates by RF magnetron sputtering were investigated. XRD spectra showed a preferred orientation along the c-axis and a minimum FWHM of the (002) XRD intensity peak for the $O_2/Ar$ flow ratio of 0.5. The (101)peak also appeared and the degree of preferred orientation decreased as the $O_2/Ar$ flow ratio increased from 0.5 to 1.0. AFM analysis results showed that the surface roughness was lowest at the $O_2/Ar$ flow ratio of 0.5 and tended to increase owing to the increase of the grain size as the $O_2/Ar$ flow ratio increased further. According to the Hall measurement results the carrier concentration and carrier mobility of the fan decreased and thus the resistivity increased as the $O_2/Ar$ flow ratio increased. The transmittance of the ZnO:Al film deposited on the glass substrate was characteristic of a standing wave. The transmittance increased as the $O_2/Ar$ flow ratio in-RF magnetron sputtering increased up to 0.5. Considering the effects of the $O_2/Ar$ flow ratio on the surface roughness, electrical resistivity and transmittance properties of the ZnO:Al film the optimum $O_2/Ar$ flow ratio was 0.5 in the RF magnetron sputter deposition of the ZnO:Al film.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.319.1-319.1
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• 2016

Recently, the Al-doped ZnO (ZnO:Al) films are intensively used in thin film a-Si solar cell applications due to their high transmittance and good conductivity. The textured ZnO:Al films are used to enhance the light trapping in thin film solar cells. The wet etch process is used to texture ZnO:Al films by dipping in diluted acidic solutions like HCl or HF. During that process the glass substrate could be damaged by the acidic solution and it may be difficult to apply it for the inline mass production process since it has to be done outside the chamber. In this paper we report a new technique to control the surface morphology of RF-sputtered ZnO:Al films. The ZnO:Al films are textured with vaporized HF formed by the mixture of HF and H2SiO3 solution. Even though the surface of textured ZnO:Al films by vapor etching process showed smaller and sharper surface structures compared to that of the films textured by wet etching, the haze value was dramatically improved. We achieved the high haze value of 78% at the wavelength of 540 nm by increasing etching time and HF concentration. The haze value of about 58% was achieved at the wavelength of 800 nm when vapor texturing was used. The ZnO:Al film texture by HCl had haze ratio of about 9.5 % at 800 nm and less than 40 % at 540 nm. In addition to low haze ratio, the texturing by HCl was very difficult to control etching and to keep reproducibility due to its very fast etching speed.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
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• v.52 no.9
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• pp.378-382
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• 2003

Transparent conductive oxides (TCO) are necessary as front electrode for most thin film solar cell. In our paper, transparent conducting aluminum-doped Zinc oxide films (ZnO:Al) were prepared by rf magnetron sputtering on glass (Corning 1737) substrate as a variation of the deposition condition. After deposition, the smooth ZnO:Al films were etched in diluted HCI (0.5%) to examine the electrical and surface morphology properties as a variation of the time. The most important deposition condition of surface-textured ZnO films by chemical etching is the processing pressure md the substrate temperature. In low pressures (0.9mTorr) and high substrate temperatures ($\leq$$300^{\circ}C$), the surface morphology of films exhibits a more dense and compact film structure with effective light-trapping to apply the silicon thin film solar cells.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2002.07a
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• pp.391-394
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• 2002

Transparent conductive oxides (TCO) are necessary as front electrode for most thin film solar cell. In our paper, transparent conducting aluminum-doped Zinc oxide films (ZnO:Al) were prepared by rf magnetron sputtering on glass (Corning 1737) substrate as a variation of the deposition condition. After deposition, the smooth ZnO:Al films were etched in diluted HCl (0.5%) to examine the electrical and surface morphology Properties as a variation of the time. The most important deposition condition of surface-textured ZnO films by chemical etching is the processing pressure and the substrate temperature. In low pressures (0.9 mTorr) and high substrate temperatures ($\leq$30$0^{\circ}C$), the surface morphology of films exhibits a more dense and compact film structure with effective light-trapping to apply the silicon thin film solar cells.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.257-261
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• 2013

We have studied structural, optical, and electrical properties of the Al-doped ZnO (AZO) thin films using RF magnetron sputtering with various working pressure. To find optimal properties of AZO for transparent conducting oxides, the working pressure in sputtering process was varied as 0.07 Torr, 0.02 Torr, and 0.007 Torr, respectively. As working pressure increased, the crystallinity of AZO thin film was improved, the surface roughness of AZO thin film decreased. The transmittance of the film was over 80% in the visible light range regardless of the changes in working pressure. In case of 0.007 Torr, best electrical properties was shown due to the reduction of oxygen absorption by decreasing surface roughness.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2008.06a
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• pp.535-536
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• 2008

Multi-layered thin films of ZnS/$Na_3AlF_6$/ZnS/Cr were deposited on glass substrate by evaporation process. ZnS and $Na_3AlF_6$ were selected as high and low refractive index material, and additionally Cr was chosen as mid reflective layer respectively. The multi-layered thin films were prepared in terms of different optical thickness and different staking sequence and layers. The optical properties were systematically characterized with different optical thickness of $Na_3AlF_6$ especially $0.25\lambda$ and $0.5\lambda$. In order to expect the experimental result, the simulation program, the Essential Macleod Program(EMP) was adopted. Based on the results taken by spectrophotometer at viewing angle $45^{\circ}$, the ZnS/$Na_3AlF_6$/ZnS/Cr multi-layered thin film shows purple colour range in $0.25\lambda$， bluish green in $0.5\lambda$, red purple in $0.75\lambda$, and purple in $1.0\lambda$ respectively.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.135-139
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• 2017

We fabricated two different transparent conducting oxide thin films of ZnO doped with Ga ($Ga_2O_3$ 0.9 wt%) as well as Al ($Al_2O_3$ 2.1 wt%) (GAZO) and ZnO doped only with Al ($Al_2O_3$ 3 wt%) (AZO). It was investigated how it affects the moisture resistance of the transparent electrode. In addition, $Cu(In,Ga)Se_2$ thin film solar cells with two transparent oxides as front electrodes were fabricated, and the correlation between humidity resistance of transparent electrodes and device performance of solar cells was examined. When both transparent electrodes were exposed to high temperature distilled water, they showed a rapid increase in sheet resistance and a decrease in the fill factor of the solar cell. However, AZO showed a drastic decrease in efficiency at the beginning of exposure, while GAZO showed that the deterioration of efficiency occurred over a long period of time and that the long term moisture resistance of GAZO was better.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.33-40
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• 2019

Al-doped ZnO (AZO) thin films were synthesized on Si(100) wafers via plasma enhanced metal organic chemical vapor deposition (PE-MOCVD) method using diethyl zinc (DEZ) and N-methylpyrrolidine alane (MPA) as precursors. Effects of Al/Zn mixing ratio, plasma power on the surface morphology, crystal structure, and electrical property were investigated with SEM, XRD and 4-point probe measurement respectively. Growth rate of the film decreased slightly with increasing the Al/Zn mixing ratio, however electrical property was enhanced and resistivity of the film decreased greatly about 2 orders from $9.5{\times}10^{-1}$ to $8.0{\times}10^{-3}{\Omega}cm$ when the Al/Zn mixing ratio varied from 0 to 9 mol%. XRD analysis showed that the grain size increased with increasing the Al/Zn mixing ratio. Growth rate and electrical property were enhanced in a mild plasma condition. Resistivity of AZO film decreased down to $7.0{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}cm$ at an indirect plasma of 100 W condition which was enough value to use for the transparent conducting oxide (TCO) material.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.324-329
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• 2012

Mg-(9-x)Sn-xAl-1Zn (x=1, 2, 3 and 4 wt.%) alloys were subjected to indirect extrusion, and the microstructure and mechanical properties of the as-extruded Mg-Sn-Al-Zn (TAZ) alloys were investigated. The TAZ 811 alloy exhibited a finer grain structure than the TAZ 541 alloy due to a larger number of Mg2Sn particles, which pinned the grain boundaries and prevented growth of recrystallized grains. The TAZ alloys showed an unusual yield asymmetry behavior. The tension-compression yield asymmetry increased with decreasing average grain size. The TAZ 811 alloy with a small grain size exhibited a larger yield asymmetry than that of the TAZ 541 alloy having a relatively large grain size, which is mainly attributed to the low Al content and large number of second phase particles in the TAZ 811 alloy.