Nitrogen-doped ZnO nanoparticle-carbon nanofiber composites were prepared using electrospinning. As the relative amounts of N-doped ZnO nanoparticles in the composites were controlled to levels of 3.4, 9.6, and 13.8 wt%, the morphological, structural, and chemical properties of the composites were characterized by means of field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). In particular, the carbon nanofiber composites containing 13.8 wt% N-doped ZnO nanoparticles exhibited superior catalytic properties, making them suitable for use as counter electrodes in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). This result can be attributed to the enhanced surface roughness of the composites, which offers sites for I3- ion reductions and the formation of Zn3N2 phases that facilitate electron transfer. Therefore, DSSCs fabricated with 13.8 wt% N-doped ZnO nanoparticle-carbon nanofiber composites showed high current density (16.3mA/cm2), high fill factor (57.8%), and excellent power-conversion efficiency (6.69%); at the same time, these DSSCs displayed power-conversion efficiency almost identical to that of DSSCs fabricated with a pure Pt counter electrode (6.57%).

Recently, improvement in the conversion efficiency of silicon-based solar cells has been achieved by decreasing emitter doping concentration, because the lightly doped emitter can effectively prevent the recombination of electrons and holes generated by solar light irradiation. This type of emitter is very thin due to the low doping concentration, thus conductive materials (i.e., silver) used for front electrodes can easily penetrate the emitter during a firing process because of their large diffusivity in silicon. This results in junction leakage currents which might reduce cell efficiencies. In this study, Al2O3-coated Ag powders were synthesized by an ultrasonic spray pyrolysis method and applied to the conductive materials of the front electrode to control the junction leakage current. The Al2O3 shell obstructs the Ag diffusion into the emitter during the firing process. The powder is spherical with a core-shell structure and the thickness of the Al2O3 shell is tens of nanometers. Solar cells were fabricated using pure Ag powders or the Al2O3-coated Ag powder as front electrode materials, and the conversion efficiency and junction leakage current were compared to investigate the role of the Al2O3 shell during the firing processes.

Serious environmental problems have been caused by the greenhouse effect due to carbon dioxide(CO2) or nitrogen oxides(NOx) generated by the use of fossil fuels, including oil and liquefied natural gas. Many countries, including our own, the United States, those of the European Union and other developed countries around the world; have shown growing interest in clean energy, and have been concentrating on the development of new energy-saving materials and devices. Typical non-fossil-fuel sources include solar cells, wind power, tidal power, nuclear power, and fuel cells. In particular, organic solar cells(OSCs) have relatively low power-conversion efficiency(PCE) in comparison with inorganic(silicon) based solar cells, compound semiconductor solar cells and the CIGS [Cu(In1-xGax)Se2] thin film solar cells. Recently, organic cell efficiencies greater than 10 % have been obtained by means of the development of new organic semiconducting materials, which feature improvements in crystalline properties, as well as in the quantum-dot nano-structure of the active layers. In this paper, a brief overview of solar cells in general is presented. In particular, the current development status of the next-generation OSCs including their operation principle, device-manufacturing processes, and improvements in the PCE are described.

Solar cells exhibit different power outputs in different climates. In this study, the temperature dependence of open-circuit voltage(V-oc), short-circuit current(I-sc), fill factor(FF) and the efficiency of screen-printed single-crystal silicon solar cells were studied. One group was fabricated with homogeneously-doped emitters and another group was fabricated with selectively-doped emitters. While varying the temperature (25, 40, 60 and 80˚C), the current-voltage characteristics of the cells were measured and the leakage currents extracted from the current-voltage curve. As the temperature increased, both the homogeneously-doped and selectively-doped emitters showed a slight increase in I-sc and a rapid degradation of V-oc. The FF and efficiency also decreased as temperature increased in both groups. The temperature coefficient for each factor was calculated. From the current-voltage curve, we found that the main cause of V-oc degradation was an increase in the intrinsic carrier concentration. The temperature coefficients of the two groups were compared, leading to the idea that structural effects could also affect the temperature dependence of current-voltage characteristics.

When sunlight irradiates a boron-doped p-type solar cell, the formation of BsO2i decreases the power-conversion efficiency in a phenomenon named light-induced degradation (LID). In this study, we used boron-doped p-type Cz-Si solar cells to monitor this degradation process in relation to irradiation wavelength, intensity and duration of the light source, and investigated the reliability of the LID effects, as well. When halogen light irradiated a substrate, the LID rate increased more rapidly than for irradiation with xenon light. For different intensities of halogen light (e.g., 1 SUN and 0.1 SUN), a lower-limit value of LID showed a similar trend in each case; however, the rate reached at the intensity of 0.1 SUN was three times slower than that at 1 SUN. Open-circuit voltage increased with increasing duration of irradiation because the defect-formation rate of LID was slow. Therefore, we suppose that sufficient time is needed to increase LID defects. After a recovery process to restore the initial value, the lower-limit open-circuit voltage exhibited during the re-degradation process showed a trend similar to that in the first degradation process. We suggest that the proportion of the LID in boron-doped p-type Cz-Si solar cells has high correlation with the normalized defect concentrations (NDC) of BsO2i. This can be calculated using the extracted minority-carrier diffusion-length with internal quantum efficiency (IQE) analysis.

In this study, we prepare polymer solar cells incorporating organic ligand-modified Ag nanoparticles (O-AgNPs) highly dispersed in the P3HT:PCBM layer. Ag nanoparticles decorated with water-dispersible ligands (W-AgNPs) were also utilized as a control sample. The existence of the ligands on the Ag surface was confirmed by FT-IR spectra. Metal nanoparticles with different surface chemistries exhibited different dispersion tendencies. O-AgNPswere highly dispersed even at high concentrations, whereas W-AgNPs exhibited significant aggregation in the polymerlayer. Both dispersion and blending concentration of the Ag nanoparticles in P3HT:PCBM matrix had critical effects onthe device performance as well as light absorption. The significant changes in short-circuit current density (JSC) of thesolar cells seemed to be related to the change in the polymer morphology according to the concentration of AgNPsintroduced. These findings suggested the importance of uniform dispersion of plasmonic metal nanoparticles and theirblending concentration conditions in order to boost the solar cell performance.

In crystalline solar cells, the substrate itself constitutes a large portion of the fabrication cost as it is derived fromsemiconductor ingots grown in costly high temperature processes. Thinner wafer substrates allow some cost saving as morewafers can be sliced from a given ingot, although technological limitations in slicing or sawing of wafers off an ingot, as wellas the physical strength of the sliced wafers, put a lower limit on the substrate thickness. Complementary to these economicaland techno-physical points of view, a device operation point of view of the substrate thickness would be useful. With this inmind, BC-BJ Si and GaAs solar cells are compared one to one by means of the Medici device simulation, with a particularemphasis on the substrate thickness. Under ideal conditions of 0.6µm photons entering the 10µm-wide BC-BJ solar cells atthe normal incident angle (θ=90o), GaAs is about 2.3 times more efficient than Si in terms of peak cell power output:42.3mW·cm−2 vs. 18.2mW·cm−2. This strong performance of GaAs, though only under ideal conditions, gives a strongindication that this material could stand competitively against Si, despite its known high material and process costs. Within thelimitation of the minority carrier recombination lifetime value of 5×10−5 sec used in the device simulation, the solar cell poweris known to be only weakly dependent on the substrate thickness, particularly under about 100µm, for both Si and GaAs.Though the optimum substrate thickness is about 100µm or less, the reduction in the power output is less than 10% from thepeak values even when the substrate thickness is increased to 190µm. Thus, for crystalline Si and GaAs with a relatively longrecombination lifetime, extra efforts to be spent on thinning the substrate should be weighed against the expected actual gainin the solar cell output power.

고분자 태양전지는 초박막, 재료의 유연성,가공성이 용이하다는 장점을 가지고 있지만, 실리콘 태양전지나 염료감응형태양전지에 비해 낮은 에너지 변환효율을 보이고 있다. 고분자태양전지의 변환효율을향상시키기 위해 유기반도체 물질의 개발, 각 층간의 계면, 활성층의 모폴로지 또는 상분리, 소자의 구조, 전극 등 다양한 분야에서 연구가 필요하다. 그 중, 본 글에서는 활성층과 음극 사이의 계면 (전자 수송층)으로 적용되는 π-conjugated 고분자전해질의 역할 및 적용된 예에 대해 기술하고자 한다.

Chalcogenide-based semiconductors, such as CuInSe2, CuGaSe2, Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS), and CdTe have attracted considerable interest as efficient materials in thin film solar cells (TFSCs). Currently, CIGS and CdTe TFSCs have demonstrated the highest power conversion efficiency (PCE) of over 11% in module production. However, commercialized CIGS and CdTe TFSCs have some limitations due to the scarcity of In, Ga, and Te and the environmental issues associated with Cd and Se. Recently, kesterite CZTS, which is one of the In- and Ga- free absorber materials, has been attracted considerable attention as a new candidate for use as an absorber material in thin film solar cells. The CZTS-based absorber material has outstanding characteristics such as band gap energy of 1.0 eV to 1.5 eV, high absorption coefficient on the order of 104cm-1, and high theoretical conversion efficiency of 32.2% in thin film solar cells. Despite these promising characteristics, research into CZTS-based thin film solar cells is still incomprehensive and related reports are quite few compared to those for CIGS thin film solar cells, which show high efficiency of over 20%. The recent development of kesterite-based CZTS thin film solar cells is summarized in this work. The new challenges for enhanced performance in CZTS thin films are examined and prospective issues are addressed as well.

The a-Si:H/c-Si hetero-junction (HJ) solar cells have a variety of advantages in efficiency and fabrication processes. It has already demonstrated about 23% in R&D scale and more than 20% in commercial production. In order to further reduce the fabrication cost of HJ solar cells, fabrication processes should be simplified more than conventional methods which accompany separate processes of front and rear sides of the cells. In this study, we propose a simultaneous deposition of intrinsic thin a-Si:H layers on both sides of a wafer by dual hot wire CVD (HWVCD). In this system, wafers are located between tantalum wires, and a-Si:H layers are simultaneously deposited on both sides of the wafer. By using this scheme, we can reduce the process steps and time and improve the efficiency of HJ solar cells by removing surface contamination of the wafers. We achieved about 16% efficiency in HJ solar cells incorporating intrinsic a-Si:H buffers by dual HWCVD and p/n layers by PECVD.

Transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) used in the antireflection layer and current spreading layer of heterojunction solar cells should have excellent optical and electrical properties. Furthermore, TCOs need a high work function over 5.2 eV to prevent the effect of emitter band-bending caused by the difference in work function between emitter and TCOs. Sn-doped In2O3 (ITO) film is a highly promising material as a TCO due to its excellent optical and electrical properties. However, ITO films have a low work function of about 4.8 eV. This low work function of ITO films leads to deterioration of the conversion efficiency of solar cells. In this work, ITO films with various Zn contents of 0, 6.9, 12.7, 28.8, and 36.6 at.% were fabricated by a co-sputtering method using ITO and AZO targets at room temperature. The optical and electrical properties of Zn-doped ITO thin films were analyzed. Then, silicon heterojunction solar cells with these films were fabricated. The 12.7 at% Zn-doped ITO films show the highest hall mobility of 35.71 cm2/Vsec. With increasing Zn content over 12.7, the hall mobility decreases. Although a small addition of Zn content increased the work function, further addition of Zn content over 12.7 at.% led to decreasing electrical properties because of the decrease in the carrier concentration and hall mobility. Silicon heterojunction solar cells with 12.7 at% Zn-doped ITO thin films showed the highest conversion efficiency of 15.8%.

염료감응형 태양전지를 위한 겔 고분자 전해질막을 제조하였다. 고분자물질로는 Poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO)를 사용하였으며, 가소제로서 poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)을 첨가하였고, 전해질염 및 I-/I3-의 공급원으로서 KI 및 I2를 첨가하여 고분자 전해질막을 제조하였으며, 이와 같은 고분자 전해질막을 바탕으로 염료감응형 태양전지를 제조하였다. 고분자 전해질 내의 가소제로서의 PEG는 95%의 함량으로 주입되었으며, 전해질 내의 EO 1 mole 당 KI mole 수([KI]/[EO] 비)가 0.022, 0.044, 0.066 및 0.088이 되도록 KI가 주입되었다. 이러한 방식으로 제조된 겔 전해질막은 상온에서 왁스(wax) 형태를 보였다. 낮은 KI 함량의 영역에서는 KI 함량이 증가하면서 전해질막을 통한 이온전도도가 증가하였으며, [KI]/[EO]비가 0.066인 때에 이온전도도는 최대값을 보인 후 0.088로 증가하면서 이온전도도는 감소하였다. 염료감응형 태양전지에 있어서는 고분자 전해질막 내의 KI 함량이 증가하면서 VOC는 지속적으로 감소하였다. 반면, JSC의 경우 낮은 KI 함량의 범위에서는 KI 함량이 증가하면서 JSC는 증가하였으며 [KI]/[EO]비가 0.044인 때에 JSC가 최대값을 보인 후 그 이상의 높은 범위에서는 KI함량의 증가에 따라 JSC는 감소하였다.

In this study, chemical bath deposited (CBD) indium sulfide buffer layers were investigated as a possible substitution for the cadmium sulfide buffer layer in CIGS thin film solar cells. The performance of the In2S3/CIGS solar cell dramatically improved when the films were annealed at 300˚C in inert gas after the buffer layer was grown on the CIGS film. The thickness of the indium sulfide buffer layer was 80 nm, but decreased to 60 nm after annealing. From the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy it was found that the chemical composition of the layer changed to indium oxide and indium sulfide from the as-deposited indium hydroxide and sulfate states. Furthermore, the overall atomic concentration of the oxygen in the buffer layer decreased because deoxidation occurred during annealing. In addition, an In-thin layer was inserted between the indium sulfide buffer and CIGS in order to modify the In2S3/CIGS interface. The In2S3/CIGS solar cell with the In interlayer showed improved photovoltaic properties in the Jsc and FF values. Furthermore, the In2S3/CIGS solar cells showed higher quantum efficiency in the short wavelength region. However, the quantum efficiency in the long wavelength region was still poor due to the thick buffer layer.

In this study, we inserted a Zn buffer layer into a AZO/p-type a-si:H layer interface in order to lower the contact resistance of the interface. For the Zn layer, the deposition was conducted at 5 nm, 7 nm and 10 nm using the rf-magnetron sputtering method. The results were compared to that of the AZO film to discuss the possibility of the Zn layer being used as a transparent conductive oxide thin film for application in the silicon heterojunction solar cell. We used the rf-magnetron sputtering method to fabricate Al 2 wt.% of Al-doped ZnO (AZO) film as a transparent conductive oxide (TCO). We analyzed the electro-optical properties of the ZnO as well as the interface properties of the AZO/p-type a-Si:H layer. After inserting a buffer layer into the AZO/p-type a-Si:H layers to enhance the interface properties, we measured the contact resistance of the layers using a CTLM (circular transmission line model) pattern, the depth profile of the layers using AES (auger electron spectroscopy), and the changes in the properties of the AZO thin film through heat treatment. We investigated the effects of the interface properties of the AZO/p-type a-Si:H layer on the characteristics of silicon heterojunction solar cells and the way to improve the interface properties. When depositing AZO thin film on a-Si layer, oxygen atoms are diffused from the AZO thin film towards the a-Si layer. Thus, the characteristics of the solar cells deteriorate due to the created oxide film. While a diffusion of Zn occurs toward the a-Si in the case of AZO used as TCO, the diffusion of In occurs toward a-Si in the case of ITO used as TCO.

원자전달 라디칼 중합(ATRP)에 의해 poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) 주사슬과 poly(styrene sulfonic acid) (PSSA) 곁사슬로 되어있는 양쪽성 PVC-g-PSSA 가지형 공중합체를 합성하였다. PVC-g-PSSA 가지형 공중합체 고분자를 템플레이트로 사용하고 졸겔법을 적용하여, 결정성 아타네제상의 미세기공 이산화티타튬 필름을 제조하였다. TiO2 전구체인 TTIP를 친수성인 PSSA 영역과 선택적으로 작용시켜 TiO2 메조기공 필름을 성장하였으며, 이를 주사전자 현미경 (SEM)과 엑스레이회절 (XRD)분석을 통해 분석하였다. 스핀코팅 횟수와 P25 도입에 따른 염료감응 태양전지 성능을 체계적으로 분석하였다. 그 결과 준고체 고분자 전해질을 이용하였을 때, 100 mW/㎠ 조건에서 에너지 변환 효율이 2.7%에 이르렀다.

To reduce manufacturing costs of crystalline silicon solar cells, silicon wafers have become thinner. In relation to this, the properties of the aluminium-back surface field (Al-BSF) are considered an important factor in solar cell performance. Generally, screen-printing and a rapid thermal process (RTP) are utilized together to form the Al-BSF. This study evaluates Al-BSF formation on a (111) textured back surface compared with a (100) flat back surface with variation of ramp up rates from 18 to 89˚C/s for the RTP annealing conditions. To make different back surface morphologies, one side texturing using a silicon nitride film and double side texturing were carried out. After aluminium screen-printing, Al-BSF formed according to the RTP annealing conditions. A metal etching process in hydrochloric acid solution was carried out to assess the quality of Al-BSF. Saturation currents were calculated by using quasi-steady-state photoconductance. The surface morphologies observed by scanning electron microscopy and a non-contacting optical profiler. Also, sheet resistances and bulk carrier concentration were measured by a 4-point probe and hall measurement system. From the results, a faster ramp up during Al-BSF formation yielded better quality than a slower ramp up process due to temperature uniformity of silicon and the aluminium surface. Also, in the Al-BSF formation process, the (111) textured back surface is significantly affected by the ramp up rates compared with the (100) flat back surface.

We have investigated the structural and electrical properties of Ga-doped ZnO (GZO) thin films deposited by anRF magnetron sputtering at various RF powers from 50 to 90W. All the GZO thin films are grown as a hexagonal wurtzitephase with highly c-axis preferred parameters. The structural and electrical properties are strongly related to the RF power. Thegrain size increases as the RF power increases since the columnar growth of GZO thin film is enhanced at an elevated RFpower. This result means that the crystallinity of GZO is improved as the RF power increases. The resistivity of GZO rapidlydecreases as the RF power increases up to 70W and saturates to 90W. In contrast, the electron concentration of GZO increasesas the RF power increases up to 70W and saturates to 90W. GZO thin film shows the lowest resistivity of 2.2×10−4Ωcmand the highest electron concentration of 1.7×1021cm−3 at 90W. The mobility of GZO increases as the RF power increasessince the grain boundary scattering decreases due to the reduced density of the grain boundary at a high RF power. Thetransmittance of GZO thin films in the visible range is above 90%. GZO is a feasible transparent electrode for application asa transparent electrode for thin film solar cells.

We have investigated the structural and optical properties of Ga-doped ZnO (GZO) thin films deposited by RFmagnetron sputtering at various deposition temperatures from 100 to 500oC. All the GZO thin films are grown as a hexagonalwurtzite phase with highly c-axis preferred parameter. The structural and electrical properties are strongly related to depositiontemperature. The grain size increases with the increasing deposition temperature up to 400oC and then decreases at 500oC. Thedependence of grain size on the deposition temperature results from the variation of thermal activation energy. The resistivityof GZO thin film decreases with the increasing deposition temperature up to 300oC and then decreases up to 500oC. GZO thinfilm shows the lowest resistivity of 4.3×10−4Ωcm and highest electron concentration of 1.0×1021cm−3 at 300oC. The mobilityof GZO thin films increases with the increasing deposition temperature up to 400oC and then decreases at 500oC. GZO thinfilm shows the highest resistivity of 14.1cm2/Vs. The transmittance of GZO thin films in the visible range is above 87% atall the deposition temperatures. GZO is a feasible transparent electrode for the application to the transparent electrode of thinfilm solar cells.

Silicon heterojunction solar cells have been studied by many research groups. In this work, silicon heterojunction solar cells having a simple structure of Ag/ZnO:Al/n type a-Si:H/p type c-Si/Al were fabricated. Samples were fabricated to investigate the effect of transparent conductive oxide growth conditions on the interface between ZnO:Al layer and a-Si:H layer. One sample was deposited by ZnO:Al at low working pressure. The other sample was deposited by ZnO:Al at alternating high working pressure and low working pressure. Electrical properties and chemical properties were investigated by light I-V characteristics and AES method, respectively. The light I-V characteristics showed better efficiency on sample deposited by ZnO:Al by alternating high working pressure and low working pressure. Atomic concentrations and relative oxidation states of Si, O, and Zn were analyzed by AES method. For poor efficiency samples, Si was diffused into ZnO:Al layer and O was diffused at the interface of ZnO:Al and Si. Differentiated O KLL spectra, Zn LMM spectra, and Si KLL spectra were used for interface reaction and oxidation state. According to AES spectra, sample deposited by high working pressure was effective at reducing the interface reaction and the Si diffusion. Consequently, the efficiency was improved by suppressing the SiOx formation at the interface.

The hybrid structured photo-electrode for dye-sensitized solar cells was fabricated based on the composites of nanoparticles and nanowires. Three samples with different hybrid structures were prepared with 17 vol%, 43 vol%, and 100 vol% nanowires. The energy conversion efficiency was enhanced from 5.54% for pure nanoparticle cells to 6.01% for the hybrid structure with 17 vol% nanowires. For the hybrid structured layers with high nanowires concentration (43 vol% and 100 vol%), the efficiency decreased with the nanowire concentration, because of the decrease of specific surface area, and of thus decreased current density. The random orientations of nanowires can be preserved by the doctor blade process, resulted in the enhanced efficiency. The hybrid structured layer can possess the advantages of the high surface area of nanoparticles and the rapid electron transport rate and the light scattering effect of nanowires.