• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.52 no.4
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• pp.294-298
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• 2015

Blocking layers with nano carbon blacks (NCBs) were prepared by adding 0.0 ~ 0.5 wt% NCBs to the $TiO_2$ blocking layer. Then, dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) were fabricated with a $0.45cm^2$ active area. TEM and micro-Raman spectroscopy were used to characterize the microstructure and phases of the NCBs, respectively. Optical microscopy and AFM were used to analyze the microstructure of the $TiO_2$ blocking layer with NCBs. UV-VIS-NIS spectroscopy was used to determine the band gap of the $TiO_2$ blocking layer with NCBs. A solar simulator and potentiostat were used to determine the photovoltaic properties and impedance of DSSCs with NCBs. The energy conversion efficiency (ECE) increased from 3.53 to 6.20 % when the NCB content increased from 0.0 to 0.3 wt%. This indicates that the effective surface area and electron mobility increased in the $TiO_2$ blocking layer with NCBs. However, the ECE decreased when the NCB content was increased to over 0.4 wt%. This change occurred because the effective electron transport area decreased with the addition of excessive NCBs to the $TiO_2$ blocking layer. The results of this study suggest that the ECE of DSSCs can be enhanced by adding the appropriate amount of NCBs to the $TiO_2$ blocking layer.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.133-138
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• 2017

We evaluated the structural, electrical and optical properties of tungsten (W)-doped $Ge_8Sb_2Te_{11}$ thin films. In a previous work, GeSbTe alloys were doped with different materials in an attempt to improve thermal stability. 200 mm thick $Ge_8Sb_2Te_{11}$ and W-doped $Ge_8Sb_2Te_{11}$ films were deposited on p-type Si (100) and glass substrates using a magnetron co-sputtering system at room temperature. The fabricated films were annealed in a furnace in the $0{\sim}400^{\circ}C$ temperature range. The structural properties were analyzed using X-ray diffraction (X'pert PRO, Phillips). The results showed increased crystallization temperature ($T_c$) leading to thermal stability in the amorphous state. The optical properties were analyzed using an UV-Vis-IR spectrophotometer (Shimadzu, U-3501, range : 300~3,000 nm). The results showed an increase in the crystalline material optical energy band gap ($E_{op}$) and an increase in the $E_{op}$ difference (${\Delta}E_{op}$). This is a good effect to reduce memory device noise. The electrical properties were analyzed using a 4-point probe (CNT-series). This showed increased sheet resistance ($R_s$), which reduces programming current in the memory device.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.398-398
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• 2013

The electronic properties and the local structure of tantalum oxide thin film with variation of oxygen flow rate ranging from 9.5 to 16 sccm (standard cubic centimeters per minute) have been investigated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Reflection Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy (REELS), and X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS). The XPS results show that the Ta4f spectrum for all films consist of the strong spin-orbit doublet $Ta4f_{7/2}$ and $Ta4f_{5/2}$ with splitting of 1.9 eV. The oxygen flow rate of the film results in the appearance of new features in the Ta4f at binding energies of 23.2 eV, 24.4 eV, 25.8, and 27.3 eV, these peaks attribute to $Ta^{1+}$, $Ta^{2+}$, $Ta^{4+}$/$Ta^{2+}$, and $Ta^{5+}$, respectively. Thus, the presence of non-stoichiometric state from tantalum oxide ($TaO_x$) thin films could be generated by the oxygen vacancies. The REELS spectra suggest the decrease of band gap for tantalum oxide thin films with increasing the oxygen flow rate. The absorption coefficient ${\mu}$ and its fine structure were extracted from the fluorescence mode of extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) spectra. In addition, bond distances (r), coordination numbers (N) and Debye-Waller factors (${\sigma}^2$) each film were determined by a detailed of EXAFS data analysis. EXAFS spectrapresent both the increase of coordination number of the first Ta-O shell and a considerable reduction of the Ta-O bond distance with the increase of oxygen flow rate.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.54-60
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• 2015

ZnSnO thin films were deposited by atomic layer deposition (ALD) process using diethyl zinc ($Zn(C_2H_5)_2$) and tetrakis (dimethylamino) tin ($Sn(C_2H_6N)_4$) as metal precursors and water vapor as a reactant. ALD process has several advantages over other deposition methods such as precise thickness control, good conformality, and good uniformity for large area. The composition of ZnSnO thin films was controlled by varying the ratio of ZnO and $SnO_2$ ALD cycles. The ALD ZnSnO film was an amorphous state. The band gap of ZnSnO thin films increased as the Sn content increased. The CIGS solar cell using ZnSnO buffer layer showed about 18% energy conversion efficiency. With such a high efficiency with the ALD ZnSnO buffer and no light soaking effect, AlD ZnSnO buffer mighty be a good candidate to replace Zn(S,O) buffer in CIGSsolar cells.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.101-105
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• 2015

ZnO is gathering great interest for large square optoelectrical devices of flat panel display (FHD) and solar cell as a transparent conductive oxide (TCO). Herewith, Mg and IIIA (Al, In) co-doped ZnO films were prepared on SLG substrate using RF magnetron sputtering system. The effect of variation of atomic weight % of Mg and ZnO have been investigated. The atomic weight % Al and In are of 3% and kept constant throughout. The numbers of samples were prepared according to their different contents, which are $M_{3%}AZO_{94%}$, $M_{4%}AZO_{93%}-(MAZO)$ and $M_{3%}IZO_{94%}$, $M_{4%}IZO_{93%}-(MIZO)$ respectively. A RF power of 225 W and working pressure of 6 m Torr was used for the deposition at $300^{\circ}C$. All of the two thin film show good uniformity in field emission scanning electron microscopy image. $M_{3%}AZO_{94%}$ thin film shows overall better performance among the all. The film shows the best lowest resistivity, carrier concentration, mobility and Sheet resistance and is found to be are of $8.16{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}cm$, $4.372{\times}10^{20}/cm^3$, $17.5cm^2/vs$ and $8.9{\Omega}/sq$ respectively. Also $M_{3%}AZO_{94%}$ thin film shows the relatively high optical band gap energy of 3.7 eV with high transmittance more than 80% in visible region required for the better solar cell performance.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.21-26
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• 2018

Beside several advantages, the PV power generation as a clean energy source, is still below the supply level due to high power generation cost. Therefore, the interest in fabricating low-cost thin film solar cells is increasing continuously. $Cu_2O$, a low cost photovoltaic material, has a wide direct band gap of ~2.1 eV has along with the high theoretical energy conversion efficiency of about 20%. On the other hand, it has other benefits such as earth-abundance, low cost, non-toxic, high carrier mobility ($100cm^2/Vs$). In spite of these various advantages, the efficiency of $Cu_2O$ based solar cells is still significantly lower than the theoretical limit as reported in several literatures. One of the reasons behind the low efficiency of $Cu_2O$ solar cells can be the formation of CuO layer due to atmospheric surface oxidation of $Cu_2O$ absorber layer. In this work, atomic layer deposition method was used to remove the CuO layer that formed on $Cu_2O$ surface. First, $Cu_2O$ absorber layer was deposited by electrodeposition. On top of it buffer (ZnO) and TCO (AZO) layers were deposited by atomic layer deposition and rf-magnetron sputtering respectively. We fabricated the cells with a change in the deposition temperature of buffer layer ranging between $80^{\circ}C$ to $140^{\circ}C$. Finally, we compared the performance of fabricated solar cells, and studied the influence of buffer layer deposition temperature on $Cu_2O$ based solar cells by J-V and XPS measurements.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.23 no.7
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• pp.359-365
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• 2013

We investigated the nanostructural, chemical and optical properties of nc-Si:H films according to deposition conditions. Plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition(PECVD) techniques were used to produce nc-Si:H thin films. The hydrogen dilution ratio in the precursors, [$SiH_4/H_2$], was fixed at 0.03; the substrate temperature was varied from room temperature to $600^{\circ}C$. By raising the substrates temperature up to $400^{\circ}C$, the nanocrystalite size was increased from ~2 to ~7 nm and the Si crystal volume fraction was varied from ~9 to ~45% to reach their maximum values. In high-resolution transmission electron microscopy(HRTEM) images, Si nanocrystallites were observed and the crystallite size appeared to correspond to the crystal size values obtained by X-ray diffraction(XRD) and Raman Spectroscopy. The intensity of high-resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy(EELS) peaks at ~99.9 eV(Si $L_{2,3}$ edge) was sensitively varied depending on the formation of Si nanocrystallites in the films. With increasing substrate temperatures, from room temperature to $600^{\circ}C$, the optical band gap of the nc-Si:H films was decreased from 2.4 to 1.9 eV, and the relative fraction of Si-H bonds in the films was increased from 19.9 to 32.9%. The variation in the nanostructural as well as chemical features of the films with substrate temperature appears to be well related to the results of the differential scanning calorimeter measurements, in which heat-absorption started at a substrate temperature of $180^{\circ}C$ and the maximum peak was observed at ${\sim}370^{\circ}C$.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.15 no.8
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• pp.543-547
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• 2005

Organic electroluminescence devices were made from 1,4-bis-(9-anthrylvinyl)benzene (AVB) and 1,4-bis-(9-aminoanthryl)benzene (AAB) anthracene derivatives. Device structure was ITO/AVB/PANI(EB)/Al (multi-layer device) and ITO/AAB:DCM/Al(single-layer device). In these devices, AVB, polyaniline(emeraldine base) (PANI(EB)) and AAB were used as the emitting material. 4-(dicyanomethylene)-2-methyl-6-p-(dimethylamino)styryl-4H -pyran(DCM) was used as red fluorescent dopant. We studied change of fluorescence wavelength with concentration of DCM doped in AAB. The ionization potential (IP) and optical band gap (Eg) were measured by cyclic voltammetry and UV-visible spectrum. We compared with difference of emitting wavelength between photoluminescence and electroluminescence spectrum. In case of the multi-layer device, PANI and AVB EL spectra have similar wave pattern to each PL spectrum and when PAM and AVB were used at the same time, and multi-layer device showed that a balanced recombination and radiation kom PANI and AVB. In case of the single-layer device, with the increase of DCM concentration, the blue emission decreases and red emission increases. This indicates that DCM was excited by the energy transfer from AAB to DCM or the direct recombination at the dopant sites due to carrier trapping, or both. The device with $1.0wt\%$ DCM concentration gave white light.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.15 no.8
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• pp.491-495
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• 2005

(Zn,Mg)O (ZMO) thin films doped with Ga $(0\~0.03mol\%)$ in the target source were prepared by pulsed laser deposition on c-plane sapphire substrates at $500^{\circ}C$, and the effect of Ga contents on the properties of the electrical, optical and crystal properties of the deposited films was investigated. From X-ray diffraction patterns, ZMO film doped with $0.02 mol\%$ Ga showed crystal structure with c-axis preferred orientation, showing only the (0002) and (0004) diffraction peaks. In contrast, ZMO film doped with $Ga=0.03 mol\%$ showed a randomly oriented crystal structure. All the samples were highly transparent, showing the transmittance values of above $85\%$ in the visible region. For all the Ga doped ZMO films, the value of energy band gap was found to be about 3.5 eV, regardless of their Ga contents. From the Hall measurements, the resistivity and the carrier density for the ZMO film doped with $0.01 mol\%$ Ga were about $5\times10^{-4}\Omega-cm$ and $2\times10^{21}cm^{-3}$, respectively.

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.23-29
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• 2016

Zinc oxide of hexagonal wurzite, is known as n-type semiconductor. It has a wide band gap energy of 3.37 eV and large exciton binding energy of 60 meV. It can be widely applied to gas sensors, laser diodes, dye-sensitized solar cells and degradation of dye waste. The use of microwave hydrothermal synthesis brings a rapid reaction rate, high yield, and energy saving. Amine additives control the different particle shapes because of the chelate effect and formation of hydroxide ion. In this study, zinc nitrate hexahydrate was used as zinc precursor. In addition, ethanolamine, ethylenediamine, diethylenetriamine, and hexamethylenetetramine are used as shape control agent. The pH value was controlled as 11 by NaOH. The shapes of zinc oxide are star-like, rod, flower-like, and circular cone. In order to analyze physical, chemical, and optical properties of ZnO with diverse amine additives, we used XRD, SEM, EDS, FT-IR, UV-Vis spectroscopy, and PL spectroscopy.