• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.230-230
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• 2013

In amorphous or microcrystalline thin-film silicon solar cells, p-i-n structure is used instead of p/n junction structure as in wafer-based Si solar cells. Hence, these p-i-n structured solar cells inevitably consist of many interfaces and the cell efficiency critically depends on the effective control of these interfaces. In this study, in-situ plasma treatment process of the interfaces was developed to improve the efficiency of a-Si:H solar cell. The p-i-n cell was deposited using a single-chamber VHF-PECVD system, which was driven by a pulsed-RF generator at 80 MHz. In order to solve the cross-contamination problem of p-i layer, high RF power was applied without supplying SiH4 gas after p-layer deposition, which effectively cleaned B contamination inside chamber wall from p-layer deposition. In addition to the p-i interface control, various interface control techniques such as thin layer of TiO2 deposition to prevent H2 plasma reduction of FTO layer, multiple applications of thin i-layer deposition and H2 plasma treatment, H2 plasma treatment of i-layer prior to n-layer deposition, etc. were developed. In order to reduce the reflection at the air-glass interface, anti-reflective SiO2 coating was also adopted. The initial solar cell efficiency over 11% could be achieved for test cell area of 0.2 $cm^2$.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.14 no.8
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• pp.552-557
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• 2004

Thin Ni-B films, 1 ${\mu}m$ thick, were electrolessly deposited on Cu bus electrode fabricated by electro deposition. The purpose of these films is to encapsulate Cu electrodes for preventing Cu oxidation and to serve as a diffusion barrier against copper contamination of dielectric layer in AC-plasma display panel. The layers were heat treated at $580^{\circ}C$(baking temperature of dielectric layer) with and without pre-annealing at $300^{\circ}C$($Ni_{3}B$ formation temperature) for 30 minutes. In the layer with pre-annealing, amount of Cu diffusion was lower about 5 times than that in the layer without pre-annealing. The difference of Cu concentration could be attributed to Cu diffusion before $Ni_{3}B$ formation at grain boundaries. However, the diffusion behavior of the layer with pre-annealing was similar to that of the layer without pre-annealing after $Ni_{3}B$ formation. With increasing annealing time, Cu concentration of both layers increased due to grain growth.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.115-115
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• 2011

Nano hybrid superlattices consisting of organic and inorganic components have great potential for creation of new types of functional material by utilizing the wide variety of properties which differ from their constituents. They provide the opportunity for developing new materials with new useful properties. Herein, we fabricated new type of organic-inorganic nano hybrid superlattice thin films by a sequential, self-limiting surface chemistry process known as molecular layer depostion (MLD) combined with atomic layer deposition (ALD). An organic layer was formed at $150^{\circ}C$ using MLD with repeated sequintial adsorption of Hydroquinone and Titanium tetrachloride. A $TiO_2$ inorganic nanolayer was deposited at the same temperature using ALD with alternating surface-saturating reactions of Titanium tetrachloride and water. Using UV-Vis spectroscopy, we confirmed visible light absorption by LMCT. And FTIR spectroscopy and XPS were employed to determine the chemical composition. Ellipsometry and TEM analysis were also used to confirm linear growth of the film versus number of MLD cycles at all same temperature. In addition, p-n junction diodes domonstrated in this study suggest that the film can be suitable for n-type semiconductors.

• Composites Research
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.121-126
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• 2022

Owing to advantages of polymeric materials for hydrogen tank liner like light-weight property and high specific strength, polymer based composites have gained much attention. Despite of many benefits, polymeric materials for fuel cell tank cause problems which is critical to applications as low gas barrier property, and poor processability when adding fillers. For these reasons, improving gas barrier property of polymer composites is required to study for expanding application fields. This work presents impermeable polymer nanocomposites by introducing thin barrier coating using layer by layer (LBL) deposition method. Also, bi-layered and quad-layered nanocomposites were fabricated and compared for identifying relationship between deposition step and gas barrier property. Reduction in gas permeability was observed without interrupting mechanical property and processability. It is discussed that proper coating conditions were suggested when different coating materials and deposition steps were applied. We investigated morphology, gas barrier property and mechanical properties of fabricated nanocomposites by FE-SEM, Oxygen permeation analyzer, UTM, respectively. In addition, we revealed the mechanism of barrier performance of LBL coating using materials which have high aspect ratio.

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.27-32
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• 2004

High temperature superconducting coated conductor has a structure of /< superconducting layer>//. The buffer layer consists of multi layer, and the architecture most widely used in RABiTS approach is CeO$_2$(cap layer)/YSZ(diffusion barrier layer)/CeO$_2$(seed layer). Evaporation technique is used for the CeO$_2$ layer and DC reactive sputtering technique is used for the YSZ layer, A chamber was set up specially for DC reactive sputtering, Detailed features are as following. A separator divided the chamber into two halves a sputtering chamber and a reaction chamber. The argon gas for sputtering target elements flows out of the cap of sputtering gun, and water vapor for reaction with depositing species spouts near the substrate. Turbo pump is connected with reaction chamber. High speed deposition of YSZ film could be achieved in the chamber. Detailed deposition conditions (temperature and partial pressure of reaction gas) were investigated for the rapid growth of high quality YSZ film.

• Journal of Ceramic Processing Research
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.401-406
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• 2018

We investigated the effect of ZnO seed layer thickness on the density of ZnO nanorod arrays. ZnO has been deposited using two distinct processes consisting of the seed layer deposition using ALD and subsequent hydrothermal ZnO growth. Due to the coexistence of the growth and dissociation during ZnO hydrothermal growth process on the seed layer, the thickness of seed layer plays a critical role in determining the nanorod growth and morphology. The optimized thickness resulted in the regular ZnO nanorod growth. Moreover, the introduction of ALD to form the seed layer facilitates the growth of the nanorods on ultrathin seed layer and enables the densification of nanorods with a narrow change in the seed layer thickness. This study demonstrates that ALD technique can produce densely packed, virtually defect-free, and highly uniform seed layers and two distinctive processes may form ZnO as the final product via the initial nucleation step consisting of the reaction between $Zn^{2+}$ ions from respective zinc precursors and $OH^-$ ions from $H_2O$.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.311-316
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• 2002

Two different approaches, namely two-step deposition process and Bias-Enhanced Nucleation (BEN) technique have been examined for deposition of high quality diamond thin film on polycrystalline Ni which has low chemical activity with the carbon neutrals provided from the $CH_4/H_2$mixtures. A two-step deposition process, consisted of pre-deposition of soot layer at lower temperatures and subsequent deposition at higher temperature condition, has been developed to deposit diamond layer directly on Ni substrate. Diamond particles were observed after deposition step at $925^{\circ}C$ for 5 hours and those particles seem to be nucleated from the soot layer pre-deposited at lower temperatures ($810^{\circ}C$). Diamond particles of a substantial size were found on Ni substrate after biasing -220 V for 10 minutes and subsequent deposition for 2 hours while no diamond particles were observed under the conditions without applied bias.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2005.07a
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• pp.207-210
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• 2005

In order to investigate the influence of the homo buffer layer on the microstructure of the ZnO thin film, undoped ZnO buffer layer were deposited on sapphire (0001) substrates by ultra high vaccum pulsed laser deposition (UHV-PLD) and molecular beam eiptaxy (MBE). After high temperature annealing at $600^{\circ}C$ for 30min, undoped ZnO buffer layer was deposited with various oxygen pressure (35~350mtorr). On the grown layer of undoped ZnO, Arsenic-doped(l, 3wt%) ZnO layers were deposited by UHV-PLD. The optical property of the ZnO was analyzed by the photoluminescence (PL) measurement. From $\Theta-2\Theta$ XRD analysis, all the films showed strong (0002) diffraction peak, and this indicates that the grains grew uniformly with the c-axis perpendicular to the substrate surface. Field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) revealed that microstructures of the ZnO were varied with oxygen pressure, arsenic doping level, and the deposition method of undoped ZnO buffer layers. The films became denser and smoother in the cases of introducing MBE-buffer layer and lower oxygen pressure during As-doped ZnO deposition. Higher As-doping concentration enhanced the columnar-character of the films.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.16-20
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• 2016

$Cu_2ZnSnS_4$ (CZTS) thin films were fabricated by successive electrodeposition of layers of precursor elements followed by sulfurization of an electrodeposited Cu-Zn-Sn precursor. In order to improve quality of the CZTS films, we tried to optimize the deposition condition of absorber layers. In particular, I have conducted optimization experiments by changing the Cu-layer deposition time. The CZTS absorber layers were synthesized by different Cu-layer conditions ranging from 10 to 16 minutes. The sulfurization of Cu/Sn/Zn stacked metallic precursor thin films has been conducted in a graphite box using rapid thermal annealing (RTA). The structural, morphological, compositional, and optical properties of CZTS thin films were investigated using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), Raman spectroscopy, and X-ray Flourescenece Spectrometry (XRF). Especially, the CZTS TFSCs exhibits the best power conversion efficiency of 4.62% with $V_{oc}$ of 570 mV, $J_{sc}$ of $18.15mA/cm^2$ and FF of 45%. As the time of deposition of the Cu-layer to increasing, the properties were confirmed to be systematically changed. And we have been discussed in detail below.