• Electrical & Electronic Materials
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.619-625
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• 1995

Polycrystalline CdTe thin film has been studied for photovoltaic application due to the 1.45 eV band gap energy ideal for solar energy conversion and high absorption coefficient. The formation of low resistance contact to p-CdTe is difficult because of large work function(>5.5eV). Common methods for ohmic contact to p-CdTe are to form a p+ region under the contact by in-diffusion of contact material to reduce the barrier height and modify a p-CdTe surface layer using chemical treatment. In this study, the surface chemical treatment of p CdTe was carried out by H$\_$3/PO$\_$4/+HNO$\_$3/ or K$\_$2/Cr$\_$2/O$\_$7/+H$\_$2/SO$\_$4/ solution to provide a Te-rich surface. And various thin film contact materials such as Cu, Au, and Cu/Au were deposited by E-beam evaporation to form ohmic contact to p-CdTe. After the metallization, post annealing was performed by oven heat treatment at 150.deg. C or by RTA(Rapid Thermal Annealing) at 250-350.deg. C. Surface chemical treatments of p-CdTe thin film improved metal/p-CdTe interface properties and post heat treatment resulted in low contact resistivity to p-CdTe.Of the various contact metal, Cu/Au and Cu show low contact resistance after oven and RTA post-heat treatments, respectively.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.28-31
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• 2002

The Cdl-xZnxTe film was fabricated by thermal evaporation for the flat-panel X-ray detector. The stoichimetric ratio and the crystal structure of a polycrystalline Cd$_{1-x}$ Zn$_{x}$Te were investigated by EPMA and XRD, respectively. The leakage current and X-ray sensitivity of the fabricated films were measured to analyze the X-ray response characteristic of Zn in the polycrystalline CdZnTe thin film. The leakage current and the output charge density of Cd$_{0.7}$Zn$_{0.3}$Te thin film were measured to 0.37 nA/cm$^2$ and 260 pc/cm$^2$ at an applied voltage of 2.5 V/${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$, respectively. Experimental results showed that the increase of Zn doping rates in Cd$_{1-x}$ Zn$_{x}$Te detectors reduced the leakage current and improved the signal to noise ratio significantly.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.4 no.5
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• pp.15-18
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• 2003

The Cd$\_$1-x/Zn$\_$x/Te film was produced by thermal evaporation for the flat-panel X-ray detector. The crystal structure and the surface morphology of poly crystalline Cd$\_$1-x/Zn$\_$x/Te film were examined using XRD and SEM, respectively. The leakage current and X-ray sensitivity of the fabricated films were measured to analyze the X-ray response characteristic of Zn in a polycrystalline CdZnTe thin film. The leakage current and the output charge density of Cd$\_$0.7/Zn$\_$0.3/Te thin film were measured to 0.3 1nA/$\textrm{cm}^2$ and 260 pC/$\textrm{cm}^2$ at an applied voltage of 2.5 V/$\mu\textrm{m}$, respectively. Experimental results showed that the increase of Zn doping rates in Cd$\_$1-x/Zn$\_$x/Te detectors reduced the leakage current and improved the X-ray sensitivity significantly. The leakage current was drastically diminished by the formation of thin parylene layer in the Cd$\_$0.7/Zn$\_$0.3/Te detector.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.343-346
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• 2010

We have investigated growth of CdTe thin films by using (As, GaAs) buffer layers for application of large scale IR focal plane arrays(IFPAs). Buffer layers were grown by molecular beam epitaxy(MBE), which reduced the lattice mismatch of CdTe/Si and prevented native oxide on Si substrates. CdTe thin films were grown by metal organic chemical deposition system(MOCVD). As a result, polycrystalline CdTe films were grown on Si(100) and arsenic coated-Si(100) substrate. In other case, single crystalline CdTe(400) thin film was grown on GaAs coated-Si(100) substrate. Moreover, we observed hillock structure and mirror like surface on the (400) orientated epitaxial CdTe thin film.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.862-868
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• 1996

Cadmium sulfide is commonly used as the window material for thin film solar cells, and can be prepared by several techniques such as sputtering, spray pyrolysis, close spaced sublimation (CSS), thermal evaporation, solution growth methods, etc. In this study, CdS films were deposited by thermal evaporation, close spaced sublimation, and solution growth methods, respectively, and the effects of the methods on physical properties of polycrystalline CdS deposited on ITO/glass were investigated. Also, the effects of variously prepared CdS thin films on the physical properties of CdTe deposited on the CdS were investigated. The thickness of polycrystalline CdS films was maintained at $0.3\mu\textrm{m}$ except for the solution grown CdS when $0.2\mu\textrm{m}$ thick CdS was deposited. After the deposition, all the samples were annealed at $400^{\circ}C$ or $500^{\circ}C$ in H2 atmosphere. To investigate physical properties of the deposited and annealed CdS thin films, UV-VIS spectro-photometry, X-ray diffractometry (XRD), and Auger electron spectroscopy (AES), and cross sectional transmission electron microscopy(XTEM) were used to analyze grain size, crystal structure, preferred orientation, optical properties, etc. The annealed CdS showed the bandedge transition at 510nm and the optical transmittance high than 80% for all of the variously deposited films. XRD results showed that CdS thin films variously deposited and annealed had the same hexagonal structures, however, showed different preferred orientations. CSS grown CdS had [103] preferred orientation, thermally evaporated CdS had [002], and CdS grown by the solution growth had no preferred orientation. The largest grain size was obtained for the CSS grown CdS while the least grain size was obtained for the solution grown CdS. Some of the physical properties of CdTe deposited on the CdS thin film such as grain size at the junction and grain orientation were affected by the physical properties of CdS thin films.

• Electrical & Electronic Materials
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• v.10 no.9
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• pp.930-937
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• 1997

Polycrystalline CdTe thin films have been studied for photovoltaic application because of their high absorption coefficient and optimal band energy(1.45 eV) for solar energy conversion. In this study CdTe thin films were deposited on CdS(chemical bath deposition)/ITO(indium tin oxide) substrate by rf-magnetron sputtering under various conditions. Structural optical and electrical properties are investigated with XRD UV-Visible spectrophotometer SEM and solar simulator respectively. The fabricated CdTe/CdS solar cell exhibited open circuit voltage( $V_{oc}$ ) of 610 mV short circuit current density( $J_{sc}$ ) of 17.2 mA/c $m^2$and conversion efficiency of about 5% at optimal sputtering conditions.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1996.07c
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• pp.1645-1647
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• 1996

Polycrystalline CdTe thin films -have been studied for photovoltaic application because of their high absorption coefficient and optimal band gap energy (1.54 eV) for solar energy conversion. In this study, we prepared CdTe films using RF-magnetron sputtering method and investigated structural, optical and electrical properties with spectrophotometer, XRD, EDX, and resistivity meter. CdTe films at $200\;^{\circ}C$ showed a mixture of zinc blend (Cubic) and wurtzite (hexagonal) phase. On the other hand, the films at $400\;^{\circ}C$ showed highly oriented structure having hexagonal structure. The resistivity of CdTe films deposited on $SiO_2$ substrates was about $10_7\;{\Omega}cm$. The value of resistivity decreased with the increase of the substrate temperature. CdTe were sputtered on CdS thin films prepared by chemical bath deposition for the formation of the heterojunction. I-V characteristics of these cells were measured at a light density of $100mw/cm^2$, AM. 1.0. The present thin film solar cells showed a conversion efficiency of about 5%.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.67-77
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• 1995

Abstract The principal factor affecting the increased penetration of photovoltaics into the marketplace is cost. For traditional crystalline silicon modules, half of the cost is that of the silicon wafers. As a result much effort has centered on reducing this cost by the use of thin film technologies. Substantial technical progress has been made towards improving the efficiencies of polycrystalline thin film solar cells to reduce the production costs. Progress in semiconductor deposition techniques has also been rapid. The most mature of these are based on polycrystalline silicon (p - Si), amorphous silicon (a - Si), copper indium diselenide $SuInSe_2$(CIS), and cadmium telluride (CdTe). This paper explores the recent advances in the development of polycrystalline thin film solar cells.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.11a
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• pp.49.2-49.2
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• 2010

Polycrystalline CdTe thin films for solar cell continues to be a promising material for the development of cost effective and reliable photovoltaic processes. The two key advantages of this material are its high optical absorption coefficient and its near ideal band gap for photovoltaic conversion efficiency of 1.4-1.5 eV. In this study we made the CdTe thin films for solar cell application which was deposited on the glass substrates using a modified chemical spray method at low temperature. This process does not require the sophisticated and expensive vacuum systems. The prepared CdTe films were characterized with the aid of scanning electron microscope (SEM), UV-visible spectrophotometer, and X-ray diffraction spectrometer (XRD). Following are results of a study on the "Human Resource Development Center for Economic Region Leading Industry" Project, supported by the Ministry of Education, Science & Tehnology(MEST) and the National Research Foundation of Korea(NRF).

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1996.07c
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• pp.1418-1420
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• 1996

In this paper, structural properties of CdTe thin films and photovoltaic properties of thin film CdS/CdTe solar ceIl prepared by thermal vacuum evaporation were studied. Structural variation with $CdCl_2/heat$ treatment are assessed using x-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. The crystal structure of CdTe films was zincblend type with preferential orientation of the (111) plane parallel to the substrate. The $CdCl_2$ treatment appears to increase the grain size of polycrystalline CdTe thin film. It was found that CdS/CdTe solar cell characteristics were improved by the heat treatment with $CdCl_2$. The conversion efficiency, however, decreased when heat treatment temperature was too high.