• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.30 no.10
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• pp.651-655
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• 2017

This work reports the surface morphology and transmittance of copper oxide thin films for semitransparent solar cell applications. We prepared the oxide specimens by subjecting copper thin films to an oxidation reaction at annealing temperatures ranging between $100^{\circ}C$ and $300^{\circ}C$. The color of the as-deposited specimen was red, but changed to purple at the annealing temperature of $300^{\circ}C$. The surface morphology and transmittance of the specimens were significantly dependent on the annealing temperature and thickness of the copper films. Copper oxide nanoparticles prepared from a 20-nm-thick copper film at an annealing temperature of $300^{\circ}C$ provided a maximum transmittance of 93%. The obtained optical characteristics and surface morphology suggest that copper oxide thin films prepared by an oxidation reaction can be potentially employed as color- and transmittance-adjusting layer in semitransparent thin solar cells.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.41-45
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• 2016

ITO/GZO double layered thin films were prepared on transparent glass substrates. Ga-doped ZnO(GZO) films were deposited by RF magnetron sputtering using an ZnO:Ga (98: 2 wt%) target. The post deposition annealing process was conducted for 30 minutes at different temperature of 100, 200, 300 and $400^{\circ}C$, respectively. As increase annealing temperature, ITO/GZO double layered thin films show the increment of the prefer orientation of ZnO diffraction peak (002) in the XRD patterns. We obtained Ga-doped ZnO thin films with a lowest resistivity of $1.84{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}-cm$ at $400^{\circ}C$ and transparency above 80% in visible ranges. The figure of merit obtained in this study means that ITO/GZO double layered thin films which annealed at $400^{\circ}C$ have the highest optoelectrical performance in this study.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.43 no.9 s.292
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• pp.532-536
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• 2006

The annealing temperature effect of transparent conducting oxide film grown on glass substrate for solar cell application was studied in this paper. Using pulsed DC magnetron sputtering with 1 at% Al-doped ZnO target, TCO films were deposited on coming 7059 glass at room temperature. Al:ZnO thin films were annealed at 200, 400, Al $600^{\circ}C$ for 10 min and annealing resulted in lower biaxial compressive stress of about 1GPa and increased average crystallite size in all films. The as-grown film shows the resistivity of $1{\times}10^{-2}{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$ and transmittance under 80%, whereas the electrical and optical properties of film annealed at $400^{\circ}C$ are enhanced up to $5{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$ and 85%, respectively.

• The Korean Journal of Ceramics
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.57-61
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• 1997

The effects of pH of solution on structural, electrical, and optical properties of CdS thin films prepared by solution growth method were investigated. With increasing pH of the solution, both crystallinity and transmittance of CdS thin film were deteriorated due to impurities and CdS particles, which were produced by homogeneous nucleation and adsorbed on the surface of CdS thin films. The films were strongly adherent to substrates and has low resistivity of 10~$10^2{\omega}cm$ regrardless of deposition conditions. After annealing at 30$0^{\circ}C$ in Ar atmosphere, the resistivity decreased due to desorption of impurity ions as well as the formation of S vacancies, but after annealing above 35$0^{\circ}C$ it increased by an agglomeration of S vacancies. After annealing in air atmosphere, the film resistivity increased because of the formation of oxide particle in grain boundaries.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2008.06a
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• pp.194-194
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• 2008

Boron doped ZnO:Al(AZOB) thin films were prepared on glass substrates by dc magnetron sputtering. Influence of the annealing treatment on the electrical and optical properties of AZOB thin films were investigated. The lowest resistivity of $1.6\times10^{-3}\Omega$-cm was obtained at an annealing temperature of $400^{\circ}C$. The average transmittance of the films is over 80% in the visible range. It was also shown that by introducing boron impurity into AZO system improve the uniformity, the resistivity, and thermal stability of ZnO-based conducting thin films.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.94-100
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• 2004

We have investigated the magnetic domain structure and the thermal stability of magnetotransport properties of IrMn biased spin-valves containing Co, CoFe and NiFe. The magnetic domain structures were imaged using a magneto-optical indicator film(MOIF) technique. To investigate the thermal stability, magnetoresistance(MR) was measured at annealing temperature(TANN) and room temperature($T_{RT}$) followed by the annealing. Domain imaging reveal that the increase of annealing temperature led to changes in the exchange coupling between the two ferromagnet(FM) layers through nonmagnetic layer rather than between FM and antiferromagnet. unlike the NiFe biased IrMn spin valve with large domains, MOIF pictures of Co and CoFe biased IrMn spin valve structures show the formation of many small microdomains. The magnetic structure, as revealed by the domain images, appeared unchanged while the MR dropped dramatically. From the combined giant magnetoresistance(GMR) and MOIF results, it was apparent that the decrease of MR ratio was not related to the spin valve magnetic structure up to about $350^{\circ}C$($T_{RT}$ ).

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2005.05a
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• pp.127-130
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• 2005

The properties of phosphorus doped ZnO multilayer thin films deposited on (001) sapphire substrates by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) were investigated by using annealing treatment at various annealing temperature after deposition. The phosphorus doped ZnO multilayer was composed of phosphorus doped ZnO layer and two pure ZnO layers on sapphire substrate. The structural. electrical and optical properties of the ZnOthin films were measured by X-ray diffraction (XRD). Hall measurements and photoluminescence (PL). As the annealing temperature optimized. the electrical properties of the ZnO multilayer showed a electron concentration of $1.56{\times}10^{16}/cm^3$, a resistivity of 17.97 ${\Omega}cm$. It was observed the electrical property of the film was changed by dopant activation effect as thermal annealing process

• Applied Science and Convergence Technology
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.208-213
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• 2017

Flexible opto-electronic devices are developed on the insulating layer deposited stainless steel (STS) substrates. The silicon dioxide ($SiO_2$) material as the diffusion barrier of Fe and Cr atoms in addition to the electrical insulation between the electronic device and STS is processed using the plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition method. Noble silver (Ag) films of approximately 100 nm thickness have been formed on $SiO_2$ deposited STS substrates by E-beam evaporation technique. The films then were annealed at $650^{\circ}C$ for 20 min using the rapid thermal annealing (RTA) technique. It was investigated the variation of the surface morphology due to the interaction between Ag films and $SiO_2$ layers after the RTA treatment. The results showed the movement of Si atoms in silver film from $SiO_2$. In addition, the structural investigation of Ag annealed at $650^{\circ}C$ indicated that the Ag film has the material property of p-type semiconductor and the bandgap of approximately 1 eV. Also, the films annealed at $650^{\circ}C$ showed reflection with sinusoidal oscillations due to optical interference of multiple reflections originated from films and substrate surfaces. Such changes can be attributed to both formation of $SiO_2$ on Ag film surface and agglomeration of silver film between particles due to annealing.

• Current Optics and Photonics
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.135-142
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• 2019

We report the precipitation of ZnO nanocrystals, Ag-clusters, and Ag nanoparticles in Ag/Er/Yb doped borate glasses by furnace annealing and $CO_2$ laser annealing. The XRD analysis revealed the precipitation of ZnO and Ag phases. The absorption spectra, the TEM and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) revealed the incorporation of Er and Yb ions into ZnO nanocrystals formed by a laser technique and showed the surface plasmon band of Ag nanoparticles. The down-converted blue emission intensity of $Er^{3+}$ ions obtained under 365 nm excitation was enhanced by more than a hundred times in the glass treated by furnace annealing, mainly due to the energy transfer from Ag-clusters. Moreover, we discussed the contribution of Ag nanoparticles and defects to emission characteristics in the glasses treated by two annealing techniques. Up-conversion emissions of the $Er^{3+}$ ions under 980 nm excitation were enhanced due to the incorporation of $Er^{3+}$ and $Yb^{3+}$ ions into ZnO nanocrystals after thermal treatments.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.11a
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• pp.42.2-42.2
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• 2010

Transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) are of significant importance for their applications in various devices, such as light-emitting diodes, thin-film solar cells, organic light-emitting diodes, liquid crystal displays, and so on. In order for TCOs to contribute to the performance improvement of these devices, TCOs should have high transmittance and good electrical properties simultaneously. Sn-doped $In_2O_3$ (ITO) is the most commonly used TCO. However, indium is toxic and scarce in nature. Thus, ZnO has attracted a lot of attention because of the possibility for replacing ITO. In particular, group III impurity-doped ZnO showed the optoelectronic properties comparable to those of ITO electrodes. Al-doped ZnO exhibited the best performance among various doped ZnO films because of the high substitutional doping efficiency. However, in order for the Al-doped ZnO to replace ITO in electronic devices, their electrical and optical properties should further significantly be improved. In this connection, different ways such as a variation of deposition conditions, different deposition techniques, and post-deposition annealing processes have been investigated so far. Among the deposition methods, RF magnetron sputtering has been extensively used because of the easiness in controlling deposition parameters and its fast deposition rate. In addition, when combined with post-deposition annealing in a reducing ambient, the optoelectronic properties of Al-doped ZnO films were found to be further improved. In this presentation, we deposited Al-doped ZnO (ZnO:$Al_2O_3$ = 98:2 wt%) thin films on the glass and sapphire substrates using RF magnetron sputtering as a function of substrate temperature. In addition, the ZnO samples were annealed in different conditions, e.g., rapid thermal annealing (RTA) at $900^{\circ}C$ in $N_2$ ambient for 1 min, tube-furnace annealing at $500^{\circ}C$ in $N_2:H_2$=9:1 gas flow for 1 hour, or RTA combined with tube-furnace annealing. It is found that the mobilities and carrier concentrations of the samples are dependent on growth temperature followed by one of three subsequent post-deposition annealing conditions.