• Progress in Superconductivity
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.68-73
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• 2007

We fabricated the in-situ $MgB_2$ wires using the powder-in-tube method and investigated the effects of sintering temperature and SiC contents on the microstructure and superconducting properties. Pure $MgB_2$ wires and 5, 10, 20 wt.% SiC doped $MgB_2$ wires were sintered at $600-1000^{\circ}C$ for 30 minutes in Ar atmosphere. We found that $MgB_2$ phase was mostly formed at the sintering temperature of $700^{\circ}C$ and above, and the critical temperature ($T_c$) increased with increasing sintering temperature. For the $MgB_2$ sintered at $850^{\circ}C$, the highest critical current density ($J_c$) was obtained to be $3.7{\times}10^5\;A/cm^2$ at 5 K and 1.6 T by a magnetic properties measurement system (MPMS). The addition of SiC to the $MgB_2$ wires changed microstructure and critical properties. SEM observation showed that the $MgB_2$ core had considerable micro-cracks in undoped wire and the density of micro-cracks decreased with increasing SiC contents. The critical temperature decreased as the SiC contents increased, on the other hand, the critical current density of SiC doped $MgB_2$ wires in high magnetic field was enhanced compared to that of undoped $MgB_2$ wires.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 1998.06a
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• pp.437-440
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• 1998

We studied phosphorus doping effect on the epitaxial growth of $Si_{1-x}Ge_{x}$ film with high Ge fraction on Si substates at 550.deg. C by LPCVD. In a low $Ph_{3}$ partial pressure region such as below 1.25 mPa, the phosphorus dopant concentration increased linearly with increasing $PH_{3}$ partial pressure while the deposition rate and the Ge fraction were constant. In a higher $PH_{3}$ partial pressure region, the phosphorus dopant concentration and the deposition rate decreased, while the Ge fraction slightly increased. The deposition arate and the Ge fraction increased with increasing $GeH_{4}$ partial pressure while the phophours dopant concentration decreased. But the increasing rate of Ge fraction with incrasing $PH_{3}$ partial pressure was reduced at a high $GeH_{4}$ partial pressure. According to test results, it suggests that high surface coverage of phosphorus atoms suppress both the $SiH_{4}$ adsorption/reasction and the $GeH_{4}$ adsorption/reaction on the surfaces, and the effect is more stronger on $SiH_{4}$ than on $GeH_{4}$. In a higher $PH_{3}$ partial pressure region, the epitaxial growth is largely controlled by surface coverage effect of phosphorus atoms. The phosphorus surface coverage was slimited at a high $GeH_{4}$ partial pressure because adsorbed Ge atoms effectively suppresses the adsorption of phosphorus atoms.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2014

We developed a method of growing thin Si film at $600^{\circ}C$ by hot wire CVD using a very thin large-grained poly-Si seed layer for thin-film Si solar cells. The seed layer was prepared by crystallizing an amorphous Si film by vapor-induced crystallization using $AlCl_3$ vapor. The average grain size of the p-type epitaxial Si layer was about $20{\mu}m$ and crystallographic defects in the epitaxial layer were mainly low-angle grain boundaries and coincident-site lattice boundaries, which are special boundaries with less electrical activity. Moreover, with a decreasing in-situ boron doping time, the mis-orientation angle between grain boundaries and in-grain defects in epitaxial Si decreased. Due to fewer defects, the epitaxial Si film was high quality evidenced from Raman and TEM analysis. The highest mobility of $360cm^2/V{\cdot}s$ was achieved by decreasing the in-situ boron doping time. The performance of our preliminary thin-film solar cells with a single-side HIT structure and $CoSi_2$ back contact was poor. However, the result showed that the epitaxial Si film has considerable potential for improved performance with a reduced boron doping concentration.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.28 no.10
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• pp.665-669
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• 2015

We investigated and compared two methods of in-situ oxidation and chemical etching treatment (CET) to remove the boron rich layer (BRL). The BRL is generally formed during boron doping process. It has to be controlled in order not to degrade carrier lifetime and reduce electrical properties. A boron emitter is formed using $BBr_3$ liquid source at $930^{\circ}C$. After that, in-situ oxidation was followed by injecting oxygen of 1,000 sccm into the furnace during ramp down step and compared with CET using a mixture of acid solution for a short time. Then, we analyzed passivation effect by depositing $Al_2O_3$. The results gave a carrier lifetime of $110.9{\mu}s$, an open-circuit voltage ($V_{oc}$) of 635 mV at in-situ oxidation and a carrier lifetime of $188.5{\mu}s$, an $V_{oc}$ of 650 mV at CET. As a result, CET shows better properties than in-situ oxidation because of removing BRL uniformly.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.204-205
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• 2011

In thin film silicon solar cells, p-i-n structure is adopted instead of p/n junction structure as in wafer-based Si solar cells. PECVD is a most widely used thin film deposition process for a-Si:H or ${\mu}c$-Si:H solar cells. For best performance of thin film silicon solar cell, the dopant profiles at p/i and i/n interfaces need to be as sharp as possible. The sharpness of dopant profiles can easily achieved when using multi-chamber PECVD equipment, in which each layer is deposited in separate chamber. However, in a single-chamber PECVD system, doped and intrinsic layers are deposited in one plasma chamber, which inevitably impedes sharp dopant profiles at the interfaces due to the contamination from previous deposition process. The cross-contamination between layers is a serious drawback of a single-chamber PECVD system in spite of the advantage of lower initial investment cost for the equipment. In order to resolve the cross-contamination problem in single-chamber PECVD systems, flushing method of the chamber with NH3 gas or water vapor after doped layer deposition process has been used. In this study, a new plasma process to solve the cross-contamination problem in a single-chamber PECVD system was suggested. A single-chamber VHF-PECVD system was used for superstrate type p-i-n a-Si:H solar cell manufacturing on Asahi-type U FTO glass. A 80 MHz and 20 watts of pulsed RF power was applied to the parallel plate RF cathode at the frequency of 10 kHz and 80% duty ratio. A mixture gas of Ar, H2 and SiH4 was used for i-layer deposition and the deposition pressure was 0.4 Torr. For p and n layer deposition, B2H6 and PH3 was used as doping gas, respectively. The deposition temperature was $250^{\circ}C$ and the total p-i-n layer thickness was about $3500{\AA}$. In order to remove the deposited B inside of the vacuum chamber during p-layer deposition, a high pulsed RF power of about 80 W was applied right after p-layer deposition without SiH4 gas, which is followed by i-layer and n-layer deposition. Finally, Ag was deposited as top electrode. The best initial solar cell efficiency of 9.5 % for test cell area of 0.2 $cm^2$ could be achieved by applying the in-situ plasma cleaning method. The dependence on RF power and treatment time was investigated along with the SIMS analysis of the p-i interface for boron profiles.