• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.02a
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• pp.20-20
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• 2010

Organic based photovoltaics (OPV) have been received a lot of attention because they are lightweight, inexpensive to fabricate and flexible compare to crystalline Si solar cells. In this seminar, several important progresses in the Polymer PV, such as, formation of bulk heterojunction, development of post annealing technique, tandem cell fabrication will be introduced. In addition that, some efforts to achieve the further improvement in the performance of the Polymer PV will be discussed.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.48-52
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• 2014

A photovoltaic cell of CuPc:P3HT:PCBM was introduced to extend the light absorption in the visible wavelength between 300~500 and 550~800 nm. By fabricating the photovoltaic cells of ITO / PEDOT:PSS / CuPc:P3HT:PCBM / BCP / Al with small-molecular and polymer donating materials blended layer, we demonstrated a high PCE of 4.20% with high Jsc of $10.05mA/cm^2$. This performance of photovoltaic cell with the blended layer of small-molecular and polymer can be competitive with that of tandem cells.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.124.2-124.2
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• 2011

현재 박막형 태양전지는 실리콘계가 주류를 이루고 있으며, 유리기판 또는 유연성 기판에 비정질 실리콘 박막을 형성시킨 태양전지와 실리콘 기판 양면에 태양전지를 형성하는 방법 등 효율을 극대화시킨 이종접합 태양전지 등이 연구되고 있다. 예컨대 밴드갭이 서로 다른 박막들 간의 이종접합을 이용한 tandem 구조 및 triple 구조의 Si 박막 태양전지의 경우 13%대 변환효율을 나타낸다고 보고된 바 있다. 본 연구에서는 비정질 Si 박막 태양전지 내 흡수층의 효율을 최대화하기 위하여 AZO/Ag 이중구조 박막의 특성에 관한 연구를 수행하고자 한다. combinatorial sputtering system을 이용하여 AZO/Ag 이중구조 박막을 제작하였으며 타겟으로는 4-inch target(Ag, 2wt% Al2O3 doped ZnO)이 사용되었다. 유리기판 상에 combinatorial sputter system으로 상온에서 제작된 Ag 박막의 두께는 25nm로 성장시켰으며 연속공정으로 AZO 박막을 제작하였고, AZO 박막은 100~500nm의 두께경사를 나타내었다. 이 때 유리기판상에 성장된 Ag/AZO 박막의 면저항은 약 $2{\Omega}/{\Box}$ 값을 나타내었다. 본 발표에서는 AZO/Ag 이중 구조 박막의 우수한 전기적 특성을 기반으로 표면 거칠기 및 반사도 특성 등에 관하여 추가적으로 토론한다.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.33 no.8
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• pp.344-351
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• 2023

Cesium lead iodide (CsPbI₃) with a bandgap of ~1.7 eV is an attractive material for use as a wide-gap perovskite in tandem perovskite solar cells due to its single halide component, which is capable of inhibiting halide segregation. However, phase transition into a photo inactive δ-CsPbI₃ at room temperature significantly hinders performance and stability. Thus, maintaining the photo-active phase is a key challenge because it determines the reliability of the tandem device. The dimethylammonium (DMA)-facilitated CsPbI₃, widely used to fabricate CsPbI₃, exhibits different phase transition behaviors than pure CsPbI₃. Here, we experimentally investigated the phase behavior of DMA-facilitated CsPbI₃ when exposed to external factors, such as heat and moisture. In DMA-facilitated CsPbI₃ films, the phase transition involving degradation was observed to begin at a temperature of 150 ℃ and a relative humidity of 65 %, which is presumed to be related to the sublimation of DMA. Forming a closed system to inhibit the sublimation of DMA significantly improved the phase transition under the same conditions. These results indicate that management of DMA is a crucial factor in maintaining the photo-active phase and implies that when employing DMA designs are necessary to ensure phase stability in DMA-facilitated CsPbI₃ devices.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.113-116
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• 2005

In this paper, silicon thin-film solar cells(Si- TFSC) and a-Si/c-Si heterojunction solar cells(HJ-cell) are investigated. The Si-TFSC was prepared on glass substrate by depositing $1-3{\mu}m$ thin-film silicons by glow discharge method. The $a-Si:H/{\mu}c-Si:H$ tandem solar cells on textured ZnO:A1 TCO (transparent conducting oxide) showed improved Jsc in top and bottom cells than that on $SnO_2:F$ TCO. This enhancement of jsc resulted from improved light trapping effect by front textured ZnO:A1. The a-Si/c-Si HJ-cells with simple structure without high efficiency features are suffering from low Voc and Jsc. The improvement of front nip and back interface properties by adopting high quality silicon-films at low temperature should be done both for increasing device performances and production cost.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.08a
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• pp.308-309
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• 2012

One of the critical issues in the growth of multijunction solar cell is the formation of a highly doped Esaki interband tunnel diode which interconnects unit cells of different energy band gap. Small electrical and optical losses are the requirements of such tunnel diodes [1]. To satisfy these requirements, tens of nanometer thick gallium arsenide (GaAs) can be a proper candidate due to its high carrier concentration in low energy band gap. To obtain highly doped GaAs in molecular beam epitaxy, the temperatures of Si Knudsen cell (K-cell) for n-type GaAs and Be K-cell for p-type GaAs were controlled during GaAs epitaxial growth, and the growth rate is set to 1.75 A/s. As a result, the doping concentration of p-type and n-type GaAs increased up to $4.7{\times}10^{19}cm^{-3}$ and $6.2{\times}10^{18}cm^{-3}$, respectively. However, the obtained n-type doping concentration is not sufficient to form a properly operating tunnel diode which requires a doping concentration close to $1.0{\times}10^{19}cm^{-3}$ [2]. To enhance the n-type doping concentration, n-doped GaAs samples were grown with a lower growth rate ranging from 0.318 to 1.123 A/s at a Si K-cell temperature of $1,180^{\circ}C$. As shown in Fig. 1, the n-type doping concentration was increased to $7.7{\times}10^{18}cm^{-3}$ when the growth rate was decreased to 0.318 A/s. The p-type doping concentration also increased to $4.1{\times}10^{19}cm^{-3}$ with the decrease of growth rate to 0.318 A/s. Additionally, bulk resistance was also decreased in both the grown samples. However, a transmission line measurement performed on the n-type GaAs sample grown at the rate of 0.318 A/s showed an increased specific contact resistance of $6.62{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}{\cdot}cm^{-2}$. This high value of contact resistance is not suitable for forming contacts and interfaces. The increased resistance is attributed to the excessively incorporated dopant during low growth rate. Further studies need to be carried out to evaluate the effect of excess dopants on the operation of tunnel diode.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.38-43
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• 2013

$Cu(In,Ga)_3Se_5$ is a candidate material for the top cell of $Cu(In,Ga)Se_2$ tandem cells. This phase is often found at the surface of the $Cu(In,Ga)Se_2$ film during $Cu(In,Ga)Se_2$ cell fabrication, and plays a positive role in $Cu(In,Ga)Se_2$ cell performance. However, the exact properties of the $Cu(In,Ga)_3Se_5$ film have not been extensively studied yet. In this work, $Cu(In,Ga)_3Se_5$ films were fabricated on Mo-coated soda-lime glass substrates by a three-stage co-evaporation process. The Cu content in the film was controlled by varying the deposition time of each stage. X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy analyses showed that, even though the stoichiometric Cu/(In+Ga) ratio is 0.25, $Cu(In,Ga)_3Se_5$ is easily formed in a wide range of Cu content as long as the Cu/(In+Ga) ratio is held below 0.5. The optical band gap of $Cu_{0.3}(In_{0.65}Ga_{0.35})_3Se_5$ composition was found to be 1.35eV. As the Cu/(In+Ga) ratio was decreased further below 0.5, the grain size became smaller and the band gap increased. Unlike the $Cu(In,Ga)Se_2$ solar cell, an external supply of Na with $Na_2S$ deposition further increased the cell efficiency of the $Cu(In,Ga)_3Se_5$ solar cell, indicating that more Na is necessary, in addition to the Na supply from the soda lime glass, to suppress deep level defects in the $Cu(In,Ga)_3Se_5$ film. The cell efficiency of $CdS/Cu(In,Ga)_3Se_5$ was improved from 8.8 to 11.2% by incorporating Na with $Na_2S$ deposition on the CIGS film. The fill factor was significantly improved by the Na incorporation, due to a decrease of deep-level defects.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.08a
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• pp.73-73
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• 2011

We will report a few methods to improve the efficiency and stability in small molecule based organic solar cells, including the formation of bulk heterojunctions (BHJs) through alternative thermal deposition (ATD), the use of a micro-cavity structure and interface modifications. By ATD which is a simple modification of conventional thermal evaporation, the thicknesses of alternative donor and acceptor layers were precisely controlled down to 0.1 nm, which is critical to form BHJs. The formation of a BHJ in copper(II) phthalocyanine (CuPc) and fullerene (C60) systems was confirmed by AFM, GISAXS and absorption measurements. From analysis of the data, we found that the CuPc|C60 films fabricated by ATD were composed of the nanometer sized disk shaped CuPc nano grains and aggregated C60, which explains the phase separation of CuPc and C60. On the other hand, the co-deposited CuPc:C60 films did not show the existence of separated CuPc nano grains in the CuPc:C60 matrix. The OPV cells fabricated using the ATD method showed significantly enhanced power conversion efficiency compared to the co-deposited OPV cells under a same composition [1]. We will also present by numerical simulation that adoption of microcavity structure in the planar heterojunction can improve the short circuit current in single and tandem OSCs [2]. Interface modifications also allowed us to achieve high efficiency and high stability OSCs.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.20 no.11
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• pp.586-591
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• 2010

Solar cells have been more intensely studied as part of the effort to find alternatives to fossil fuels as power sources. The progression of the first two generations of solar cells has seen a sacrifice of higher efficiency for more economic use of materials. The use of a single junction makes both these types of cells lose power in two major ways: by the non-absorption of incident light of energy below the band gap; and by the dissipation by heat loss of light energy in excess of the band gap. Therefore, multi junction solar cells have been proposed as a solution to this problem. However, the $1^{st}$ and $2^{nd}$ generation solar cells have efficiency limits because a photon makes just one electron-hole pair. Fabrication of all-silicon tandem cells using an Si quantum dot superlattice structure (QD SLS) is one possible suggestion. In this study, an $SiO_x$ matrix system was investigated and analyzed for potential use as an all-silicon multi-junction solar cell. Si quantum dots with a super lattice structure (Si QD SLS) were prepared by alternating deposition of Si rich oxide (SRO; $SiO_x$ (x = 0.8, 1.12)) and $SiO_2$ layers using RF magnetron co-sputtering and subsequent annealing at temperatures between 800 and $1,100^{\circ}C$ under nitrogen ambient. Annealing temperatures and times affected the formation of Si QDs in the SRO film. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) spectra and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) revealed that nanocrystalline Si QDs started to precipitate after annealing at $1,100^{\circ}C$ for one hour. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images clearly showed SRO/$SiO_2$ SLS and Si QDs formation in each 4, 6, and 8 nm SRO layer after annealing at $1,100^{\circ}C$ for two hours. The systematic investigation of precipitation behavior of Si QDs in $SiO_2$ matrices is presented.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.322.1-322.1
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• 2014

Many research groups have studied tandem or multi-junction cells to overcome this low efficiency and degradation. In multi-junction cells, band-gap engineering of each absorb layer is needed to absorb the light at various wavelengths efficiently. Various absorption layers can be formed using multi-junctions, such as hydrogenated amorphous silicon carbide (a-SiC:H), amorphous silicon germanium (a-SiGe:H) and microcrystalline silicon (${\mu}c$-Si:H), etc. Among them, ${\mu}c$-Si:H is the bottom absorber material because it has a low band-gap and does not exhibit light-induced degradation like amorphous silicon. Nevertheless, ${\mu}c$-Si:H requires a much thicker material (>2 mm) to absorb sufficient light due to its smaller light absorption coefficient, highlighting the need for a high growth rate for productivity. ${\mu}c$-SiGe:H has a much higher absorption coefficient than ${\mu}c$-Si:H at the low energy wavelength, meaning that the thickness of the absorption layer can be decreased to less than half that of ${\mu}c$-Si:H. ${\mu}c$-SiGe:H films were prepared using 40 MHz very high frequency PECVD method at 1 Torr. SiH4 and GeH4 were used as a reactive gas and H2 was used as a dilution gas. In this study, the ${\mu}c$-SiGe:H layer for triple solar cells applications was performed to optimize the film properties.