• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2019

Light induced degradation is one of the major research challenges of hydrogenated amorphous silicon related thin film silicon solar cells. Amorphous silicon shows creation of metastable defect states, originating from elevated concentration of dangling bonds during light exposure. The metastable defect states work as recombination centers, and mostly affects quality of intrinsic layer in solar cells. In this paper we present results of light induced degradation in thin film silicon solar cells and discussion on physical origin, mechanism and practical solutions of light induced degradation in thin film silicon solar cells. In-situ light-soaking IV measurement techniques are presented. We also present thin film silicon material with silicon nano-quantum dots embedded within amorphous matrix, which shows superior stability during light-soaking. Our results suggest that solar cell using silicon nano-quantum dots in abosrber layer shows superior stability under light soaking, compared to the conventional amorphous silicon solar cell.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.145-159
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• 2021

Light soaking (LS) stability in polymer solar cells (PSCs) has always been a challenge to achieve due to unstable photoactive layer-electrode interface. Especially, the electron transport layer (ETL) and photoactive layer interface limits the LS stability of PSCs. Herein, we have modified the most commonly used and robust zinc oxide (ZnO) ETL-interface using an organic dye molecule and a co-adsorbent. Power conversion efficiencies have been slightly improved but when these PSCs were subjected to long term LS stability chamber, equipped with heat and humidity (45℃ and 85% relative humidity), an outstanding stability in the case of ZnO/dye+co-adsorbent ETL containing devices have been achieved. The enhanced LS stability occurred due to the suppressed interfacial defects and robust contact between the ZnO and photoactive layer. Current density as well as fill factors have been retained after LS with the modified ETL as compared to un-modified ETL, owing to their higher charge collection efficiencies which originated from higher electron mobilities. Moreover, the existence of less traps (as observed from light intensity-open circuit voltage measurements and dark currents at -2V) are also found to be one of the reasons for enhanced LS stability in the current study. We conclude that the mitigation ETL-surface traps using an organic dye with a co-adsorbent is an effective and robust approach to enhance the LS stability in PSCs.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.51-54
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• 1999

Hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) films are fabricated by Argon radical annealing (ArRA). The deposition rate of continuously deposited a-Si:H film is 1.9 $\AA$/s. As ArRA time are increased to 0.5 and 1 minute, the deposition rate are increased to 2.8 $\AA$/s and 3.3 $\\AA$/s. The deposition rate of a-si:H films with 2 and 3 minutes ArRA time are 3.3 $\AA$/s. As the ArRA time is increased, the optical band gap and the hydrogen contents in the a-Si:H films are increased and slightly decreased. The light-induced degradation of ArRA treated a-Si:H films are less than that of continuously deposited a-Si:H film. The dark conductivity and the conductivity activation energy ($E_a$) of continuously deposited a-Si:H film are decreased to 1/25 in room temperature and increased to 0.09eV By 1 hour light soaking, respectively. The dark conductivity and $E_a$ of ArRA treated a-Si:H film decreased to 1/3 in room temperature and increased to 0.03eV by 1 hour light soaking, respectively. We could improve the stability of a-Si:H films under the light soaking by ArRA technique and discussed the microscopic process of ArRA technique.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.73-76
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• 1996

We have prepared hydrogenated amophous silicon (a-si : H) films with superlattice structure by hydrogen radical anneling(HRA) technique. We have studied the preparation of a-Si :H films by HRA and the optical & electronic characteristics. Optical band gap and the hydrogen contents in the a Si : H film is decreased as HRA time increased. We first report a -Si : H film prepared by periodicdeposition of a-Si : H layer and HRA have the superlattice structure using TEM . After 1 hour light soaking on the a-Si :H film prepared by HRA, there are no difference in the temperatre dependence of dark conductivity and the conductivity activation energy. An excellent stability for light in a-Si :H films by HRA can be explained using the long-range structural relaxation of the amorphous network and the propertiesof light -induced defects(LID) proposed by Fritzsche.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.155-158
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• 2016

Long-term stability of dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) module is critical for the commercialization. We investigated the effect of sealing technology on the long-term stability of the $10cm{\times}11cm$ sized DSSC modules. We applied the concept of secondary sealing to the module and then performed several stability tests such as humidity cycle, 1 sun light soaking and outdoor stability tests. The enhanced stability was confirmed for the DSSC module employing optimized sealing materials and architectures.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 1999.07a
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• pp.63-63
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• 1999

The stability of hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) films under the light soaking are very important since the applications of a-Si:H films are solar cells, color sensors, photosensors, and thin film transistors(TFTs). We found the changes of the electric conductivity and the conductivity activation energy (Ea) of a-Si:H films by argon radical annealing. The deposition rate of a-Si:H films depends on the argon radical annealing time. The optical band gap and the hydrogen contents in the a-Si:H films are changes along the argon radical annealing time. We will discuss the microscopic processes of argon radical annealing in a-si:H films.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.08a
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• pp.306-306
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• 2010

A high density (> $10^{11}\;cm^{-3}$) and low electron temperature (< 2 eV) plasma is produced by using a conventional HF (13.56 MHz) plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) with an additional ultra high frequency (UHF, 314 MHz) plasma source utilizing two parallel antenna assembly. It is applied for the high rate synthesis of high quality nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si) films. A high deposition rate of 1.8 nm/s is achieved with a high crystallinity (< 70%), a low spin density (< $3{\times}10^{16}\;cm^{-3}$) and a high light soaking stability (< 1.5). Optical emission spectroscopy measurements reveal emission intensity of $Si^*$ and $SiH^*$, intensity ratio of $H{\alpha}/Si^*$ and $H{\alpha}/SiH^*$ which are closely related to film deposition rate and film crystallinity, respectively. A high flux of precursor and atomic hydrogen which are produced by an additional high excitation frequency is effective for the fast deposition of highly crystallized nc-Si films without additional defects.

• The Journal of Korean Academy of Prosthodontics
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.330-343
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• 1997

Extraoral maxillofacial prostheses are essential for restoring facial structures that are lost as a result of congenital missing, injuries from accidents, surgical treatments of head and neck cancer. Recently, silicone is the most useful material for this purpose and is more advantageous than other maxillofacial prosthetic materials. However, there are some problems for long-term usage of silicone prostheses due to tear and color change. These are major contributing environmental factors to those problems that are such as ultraviolet light, cleansing agents, changes in humidity and successive adhesion and removal. The aim of this study is to evaluate the physical properties and color changes of maxillofacial prosthetic silicone material by those environmental factors using A-2186 silicone material (Factor II, USA) and two pigments, cadmium yellow medium and cosmetic red. Aluminium molds were fabricated according to the ASTM No. D412 & D624 specifications and resulted specimens from molds were fabicated and treated as follows. Control group and experimental I group were fabricated with 0.1% wt. pigment mixing in silicone elastomer and II-1 group, II-2 group of experimental II group were fabricated with 0.2%, 0.3% wt. pigment mixing in silicone elastomer, respectively. Control group was kept in darkroom at room temperature, I-1 group was kept under natural sunlight during 1week, I-2 group was soaked in 20% soap water during 1wk. I-3 group was successively adhered and removed 200 times on inner region of arm using Daro adhesive-33. Experimental II groups were kept in darkroom at room temperature. Instron universal testing machine was used to measure the % elongation, tensile strength, tear strength of control, experimental I, II groups and reflectance spectrophotometer(COLOR EYE-3000, Macbeth, USA) was used to measure the color differences between control group and experimental I group. The results were as follows : 1. When compared with control group, natural weathering group and 20% soap-water soaking group had no significant differences in % elongation(p>0.05). 2. 200 times successive adhesion and removal group, 0.2% wt. pigment group and 0.3% wt. pigment group had significant decreases in % elongation(p<0.05). 3. Natural weathering group, 20% soap-water soaking group and 200 times successive adhesion and removal group had no significant differences in tensile strength (p>0.05). 4. 0.2%, 0.3% wt. pigment groups had significant decreases in tensile strength(p<0.05). 5. Values of all experimental groups were decreased in tear strength. and 200 times successive adhesion and removal group had significant decrease in tear strength(p<0.05). 6. Natural weathering group and 20% soap-water soaking group had significant color differences(${\Delta}E$) and it could be detectable to naked eye(p<0.05). 7. Color differences between control group and 200 times adhesion and removal group were not detectable to the naked eye (${\Delta}E<1.0$).

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.88.1-88.1
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• 2010

Organic dyes, because of their many advantages, such as high molar extinction coefficients, convenience of customized molecular design for desired photophysical and photochemical properties, inexpensiveness with no transition metals contained, and environment-friendliness, are suitable as photosensitizers for the Dye-sensitized Solar Cell (DSSC). The efficiency of DSSC based on metal-free organic dyes is known to be much lower than that of Ru dyes generally, but a high solar energy-to-electricity conversion efficiency of up to 8% in full sunlight has been achieved by Ito et al. using an indoline dye. This result suggests that smartly designed and synthesized metal-free organic dyes are also highly competitive candidates for photosensitizers of DSSCs with their advantages mentioned above. Recently, the performance of DSSC based on metal-free organic dyes has been remarkably improved by several groups. We had reported the novel organic dye with double electron acceptor chromophore, which was a new strategy to design an efficient photosensitizer for DSSC. To verify the strategy, we synthesized organic dyes whose geometries, electronic structures and optical properties were derived from preceding density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) calculations. In this paper, we successfully synthesized the chromophore containing multi-acceptor push-pull system from triphenylamine with thiophene moieties as a bridge unit. Organic dyes with a single electron acceptor and double acceptor system were also synthesized for comparison purposes. The photovoltaic performances of these dyes were compared, and the recombination dark current curves and the incident photon-to-current (IPCE) efficiencies were also measured in order to characterize the effects of the multi-anchoring groups on the open-circuit voltage and the short-circuit current. In order to match specifications required for practical applications to be implemented outdoors, light soaking and thermal stability tests of these DSSCs, performed under $100mWcm^{-2}$ and $60^{\circ}C$ for 1000h.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
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• 2016.11a
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• pp.181-181
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• 2016

Hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon (${\mu}c-Si:H$) films have attracted much attention as materials of the bottom-cells in Si thin film tandem photovoltaics due to their low bandgap and excellent stability against light soaking. However, in PECVD, the source gas $SiH_4$ must be highly diluted by $H_2$, which eventually results in low deposition rate. Moreover, it is known that high-rate ${\mu}c-Si:H$ growth is usually accompanied by a large number of dangling-bond (DB) defects in the resulting films, which act as recombination centers for photoexcited carriers, leading to a deterioration in the device performance. During film deposition, Si nanoparticles generated in $SiH_4$ discharges can be incorporated into films, and such incorporation may have effects on film properties depending on the size, structure, and volume fraction of nanoparticles incorporated into films. Here we report experimental results on the effects of nonoparticles incorporation at the different substrate temperature studied using a multi-hollow discharge plasma CVD method in which such incorporation can be significantly suppressed in upstream region by setting the gas flow velocity high enough to drive nanoparticles toward the downstream region. All experiments were performed with the multi-hollow discharge plasma CVD reactor at RT, 100, and $250^{\circ}C$, respectively. The gas flow rate ratio of $SiH_4$ to $H_2$ was 0.997. The total gas pressure P was kept at 2 Torr. The discharge frequency and power were 60 MHz, 180 W, respectively. Crystallinity Xc of resulting films was evaluated using Raman spectra. The defect densities of the films were measured with electron spin resonance (ESR). The defect density of fims deposited in the downstream region (with nonoparticles) is higher defect density than that in the upstream region (without nanoparticles) at low substrate temperature of RT and $100^{\circ}C$. This result indicates that nanoparticle incorporation can change considerably their film properties depending on the substrate temperature.