• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
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• 2014.11a
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• pp.97-97
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• 2014

The properties of thin film solar cells based on electrodeposited $CuIn(Se,S)_2$ were investigated. The proposed solar cell fabrication method involves a single-step $CuInSe_2$ thin film electrodeposition followed by sulfurization in a tube furnace to form a $CuIn(Se,S)_2$ quaternary phase. A sulfurization temperature of $450-550^{\circ}C$ significantly affected the performance of the $CuIn(Se,S)_2$ thin film solar cell in addition to its composition, grain size and bandgap. Sulfur(S) substituted for selenium(Se) at increasing rates with higher sulfurization temperature, which resulted in an increase in overall band gap of the $CuIn(Se,S)_2$ thin film. The highest conversion efficiency of 3.12% under airmass(AM) 1.5 illumination was obtained from the $500^{\circ}C$-sulfurized solar cell. The highest External Quantum Efficiency(EQE) was also observed at the sulfurization temperature of $500^{\circ}C$.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.216-222
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• 2017

The most prominent challenge for MOSFET scaling is to reduce power consumption; however, the supply voltage ($V_{DD}$) cannot be scaled down because of the carrier injection mechanism. To overcome this limit, a new type of field-effect transistor using positive feedback as a carrier injection mechanism (FBFET) has been proposed. In this study we have investigated the electrical characteristics of a $Si_{1-x}Ge_x$ FBFET with one gate and one-sided $Si_3N_4$ spacer using TCAD simulations. To reduce the drain bias dependency, $Si_{1-x}Ge_x$ was introduced as a low-bandgap material, and the minimum subthreshold swing was obtained as 2.87 mV/dec. This result suggests that a $Si_{1-x}Ge_x$ FBFET is a promising candidate for future low-power devices.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.65-70
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• 2015

We applied KF on CIGS film to modify CIGS surface with a wider-bandgap surface layer. With the KF deposition the surface of CIGS film had fine particle on the CIGS surface at 350 and $300^{\circ}C$. No fine particle was detected at 500 and $250^{\circ}C$. With the KF treatment, the Ga and O content increased at the surface, while the In and Cu content decreased. The valence band maximum was lowered with KF treatment. The composition profile and band structure were positive side of applying KF on the CIGS surface. However, the efficiency decreased with the KF treatment due to high series resistance, probably due to too thick surface layer. A smaller amount of KF should be supplied and more systematic analysis is necessary to obtain a reproducible higher efficiency CIGS solar cells.

• Proceedings of the Korean Magnestics Society Conference
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• 2013.05a
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• pp.19-20
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• 2013

Thermoelectic properties of the typical thermoelectric host materials, the tellurides and selenides, are known to be noticeably changed by their volume change due to the strain [1]. In the bismuth telluride ($Bi_2Te_3$) crystal, a substitution of rare-earth element by replacing one of the Bi atoms may cause the change of the lattice parameters while remaining the rhombohedral structure of the host material. Using the first-principles approach by the precise full potential linearized augmented plane wave (FLAPW) method [2], we investigated the Ce substitution effect on the thermoelectric transport coefficients for the bismuth telluride, employing Boltzmann's equation in a constant relaxation-time approach fed with the FLAPW wave-functions within the rigid band approximation. Depending on the real process of re-arrangement of atoms in the cell to reach the equilibrium state, $CeBiTe_3$ was found to manifest a metal or a narrow bandgap semiconductor. This feature along with the strong correlation effect originated by the 4f states of Ce affect significantly on the thermoelectric properties. We showed that the position of the strongly localized f-states in energy scale (Fig. 1, f-states are shaded) was found to alter critically the transport properties in this material suggesting an opportunity to improve the thermoelectric efficiency by tuning the external strain which may changing the location of the f-sates.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.304-308
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• 2013

The effect of a sputter deposition sequence of Cu, Zn, and Sn metal layers on the properties of $Cu_2ZnSnS_4$ (CZTS) was systematically studied for solar cell applications. The set of Cu/Sn/Zn/Cu multi metal films was deposited on a Mo/$SiO_2$/Si wafer using dc sputtering. CZTS films were prepared through a sulfurization process of the Cu/Sn/Zn/Cu metal layers at $500^{\circ}C$ in a $H_2S$ gas environment. $H_2S$ (0.1%) gas of 200 standard cubic centimeters per minute was supplied in the cold-wall sulfurization reactor. The metal film prepared by one-cycle deposition of Cu(360 nm)/Sn(400 nm)/Zn(400 nm)/Cu(440 nm) had a relatively rough surface due to a well-developed columnar structure growth. A dense and smooth metal surface was achieved for two- or three-cycle deposition of Cu/Sn/Zn/Cu, in which each metal layer thickness was decreased to 200 nm. Moreover, the three-cycle deposition sample showed the best CZTS kesterite structures after 5 hr sulfurization treatment. The two- and three-cycle Cu/Sn/Zn/Cu samples showed high-efficient photoluminescence (PL) spectra after a 3 hr sulfurization treatment, wheres the one-cycle sample yielded poor PL efficiency. The PL spectra of the three-cycle sample showed a broad peak in the range of 700-1000 nm, peaked at 870 nm (1.425 eV). This result is in good agreement with the reported bandgap energy of CZTS.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.632-639
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• 2021

In this research, fluorine doping was performed to enhance the photocatalytic activities of WO₃ which were measured using methylene blue dye. WO_3-xF_x photocatalyts were prepared by a vaper phase fluorination during a sintering for preparing WO₃ photocatalysts from a WCl₆ precursor. The bandgap energy of WO₃ photocatalysts decreased from 2.95 eV to 2.54 eV, and the oxygen vacancies site increased by about 55% after fluorine doping. In addition, the initial degradation efficiency of methylene blue showed that the fluorine doped sample showed a 6-fold increase in photocatalytic activities from 10% to 60% compared to that of the untreated sample. It is believed that fluorine is doped to reduce the band gap of photocatalysts, enabling the catalytic activity with low energy, and that oxygen vacancies-generated surface defects increase the visible light absorption region of WO₃ photocatalysts, thereby increasing photocatalytic activity. In this study, it was confirmed that fluorine-doped WO_3-xF_x photocatalysts with an excellent photocatalytic activity can be manufactured easily using a one-step vaper phase fluorination that does not require a post-treatment process.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.33 no.12
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• pp.525-529
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• 2023

β-Ga₂O₃ has become the focus of considerable attention as an ultra-wide bandgap semiconductor following the successful development of bulk single crystals using the melt growth method. Accordingly, homoepitaxy studies, where the interface between the substrate and the epilayer is not problematic, have become mainstream and many results have been published. However, because the cost of homo-substrates is high, research is still mainly at the laboratory level and has not yet been scaled up to commercialization. To overcome this problem, many researchers are trying to grow high quality Ga₂O₃ epilayers on hetero-substrates. We used diluted SiH4 gas to control the doping concentration during the heteroepitaxial growth of β-Ga₂O₃ on c-plane sapphire using metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). Despite the high level of defect density inside the grown β-Ga₂O₃ epilayer due to the aggregation of random rotated domains, the carrier concentration could be controlled from 1 × 10¹⁹ to 1 × 10¹⁶ cm^-3 by diluting the SiH4 gas concentration. This study indicates that β-Ga₂O₃ hetero-epitaxy has similar potential to homo-epitaxy and is expected to accelerate the commercialization of β-Ga₂O₃ applications with the advantage of low substrate cost.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.159-165
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• 2022

To enhance the photocatalytic activities of WO₃ photocatalysts, fluorine doping was performed to induce the oxygen vacancies. Both plasma and direct vaper fluorination were carried out for fluorine doping, and photocatalytic activities were examined by using methylene blue dye. Oxygen vacancies of the plasma and direct vaper fluorinated WO₃ photocatalysts were measured to be 14.65 and 18.59%, which increased to about 23 and 56% at pristine WO₃ photocatalysts. The degradation efficiency of methylene blue was also determined about 1.7 and 3.4 times higher than pristine WO₃ photocatalysts, respectively, depending on oxygen vacancies increased. In addition, it was confirmed that the bandgap process energy decreased from 2.95 eV to 2.64 and 2.45 eV after fluorine doping. From this result, it is considered that the direct vaper fluorination has an advantage for increasing the photocatalytic activities of WO₃ compared to that of the plasma fluorination.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.143-149
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• 2021

In this study, (GaN)_1-x(ZnO)_x solid solution nanoparticles with a high zinc content are prepared by ultrasonic spray pyrolysis and subsequent nitridation. The structure and morphology of the samples are investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field-emission scanning electron microscopy, and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The characterization results show a phase transition from the Zn and Ga-based oxides (ZnO or ZnGa₂O₄) to a (GaN)_1-x(ZnO)_x solid solution under an NH3 atmosphere. The effect of the precursor solution concentration and nitridation temperature on the final products are systematically investigated to obtain (GaN)_1-x(ZnO)_x nanoparticles with a high Zn concentration. It is confirmed that the powder synthesized from the solution in which the ratio of Zn and Ga was set to 0.8:0.2, as the initial precursor composition was composed of about 0.8-mole fraction of Zn, similar to the initially set one, through nitriding treatment at 700℃. Besides, the synthesized nanoparticles exhibited the typical XRD pattern of (GaN)_1-x(ZnO)_x, and a strong absorption of visible light with a bandgap energy of approximately 2.78 eV, confirming their potential use as a hydrogen production photocatalyst.

• Journal of Adhesion and Interface
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.107-112
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• 2020

Recently, the atomically thin transition-metal dichalcogenide (TMD) semiconductors have attracted much attention owing to their remarkable properties such as tunable bandgap with high carrier mobility, flexibility, transparency, etc. However, because these TMD materials have a significant drawback that they are easily degraded in an ambient environment, various attempts have been made to improve chemical stability. In this research article, I report a method to improve the air stability of WSe₂ one of the TMD materials via surface passivation with an h-BN insulator, and its application to field-effect transistors (FETs). With a modified hot pick-up transfer technique, a vertical heterostructure of h-BN/WSe₂ was successfully made, and then the structure was used to fabricate the top-gate bottom-contact FETs. The fabricated WSe₂-based FET exhibited not only excellent air stability, but also high hole mobility of 150 ㎠/Vs at room temperature, on/off current ratios up to 3×10⁶, and 192 mV/decade of subthreshold swing.