title: Breakthrough to Non-Vacuum Deposition of Single-Crystal, Ultra-Thin, Homogeneous Nanoparticle Layers: A Better Alternative to Chemical Bath Deposition and Atomic Layer Deposition.
abstract: Most thin-film techniques require a multiple vacuum process, and cannot produce high-coverage continuous thin films with the thickness of a few nanometers on rough surfaces. We present a new "paradigm shift" non-vacuum process to deposit high-quality, ultra-thin, single-crystal layers of coalesced sulfide nanoparticles (NPs) with controllable thickness down to a few nanometers, based on thermal decomposition. This provides high-coverage, homogeneous thickness, and large-area deposition over a rough surface, with little material loss or liquid chemical waste, and deposition rates of 10 nm/min. This technique can potentially replace conventional thin-film deposition methods, such as atomic layer deposition (ALD) and chemical bath deposition (CBD) as used by the Cu(In,Ga)Se₂ (CIGS) thin-film solar cell industry for decades. We demonstrate 32% improvement of CIGS thin-film solar cell efficiency in comparison to reference devices prepared by conventional CBD deposition method by depositing the ZnS NPs buffer layer using the new process. The new ZnS NPs layer allows reduction of an intrinsic ZnO layer, which can lead to severe shunt leakage in case of a CBD buffer layer. This leads to a 65% relative efficiency increase.
authors.affiliation: Green Energy & Environment Research Laboratories, Industrial Technology Research Institute, No. 195, Sec. 4, Chung Hsing Road, Chutung, Hsinchu 31040, Taiwan. alexliao.ep99g@nctu.edu.tw.|Department of Electro-Physics and Department of Photonic & Institute of Electro-Optical Engineering, National Chiao Tung University, No. 1001, University Road, Hsinchu 30010, Taiwan. alexliao.ep99g@nctu.edu.tw.
authors.forename: Yu-Kuang
authors.initials: YK
authors.lastname: Liao
authors.affiliation: Green Energy & Environment Research Laboratories, Industrial Technology Research Institute, No. 195, Sec. 4, Chung Hsing Road, Chutung, Hsinchu 31040, Taiwan. yungtsungliu@itri.org.tw.
authors.forename: Yung-Tsung
authors.initials: YT
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Electro-Physics and Department of Photonic & Institute of Electro-Optical Engineering, National Chiao Tung University, No. 1001, University Road, Hsinchu 30010, Taiwan. khlhjh34@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Dan-Hua
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Hsieh
authors.affiliation: Department of Electro-Physics and Department of Photonic & Institute of Electro-Optical Engineering, National Chiao Tung University, No. 1001, University Road, Hsinchu 30010, Taiwan. elisa_tien@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Tien-Lin
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.affiliation: Department of Electronic Engineering, Chang-Gung University, No. 259, Wen-Hwa 1st Road, Kwei-Shan, Taoyuang 33302, Taiwan. sirius0816@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Ming-Yang
authors.initials: MY
authors.lastname: Hsieh
authors.affiliation: Department of Electro-Physics and Department of Photonic & Institute of Electro-Optical Engineering, National Chiao Tung University, No. 1001, University Road, Hsinchu 30010, Taiwan. jerrytzou.ep00g@gmail.com.
authors.forename: An-Jye
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Tzou
authors.affiliation: Department of Electro-Physics and Department of Photonic & Institute of Electro-Optical Engineering, National Chiao Tung University, No. 1001, University Road, Hsinchu 30010, Taiwan. cscbobo@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Shih-Chen
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Electro-Physics and Department of Photonic & Institute of Electro-Optical Engineering, National Chiao Tung University, No. 1001, University Road, Hsinchu 30010, Taiwan. eclipse947346@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Yu-Lin
authors.initials: YL
authors.lastname: Tsai
authors.affiliation: Green Energy & Environment Research Laboratories, Industrial Technology Research Institute, No. 195, Sec. 4, Chung Hsing Road, Chutung, Hsinchu 31040, Taiwan. itriA00515@itri.org.tw.
authors.forename: Wei-Sheng
authors.initials: WS
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Green Energy & Environment Research Laboratories, Industrial Technology Research Institute, No. 195, Sec. 4, Chung Hsing Road, Chutung, Hsinchu 31040, Taiwan. fallout34@itri.org.tw.
authors.forename: Sheng-Wen
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, National Taiwan University, No.1, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Road, Taipei 10617, Taiwan. B99203009@ntu.edu.tw.
authors.forename: Yen-Ping
authors.initials: YP
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.affiliation: Department of Electro-Physics and Department of Photonic & Institute of Electro-Optical Engineering, National Chiao Tung University, No. 1001, University Road, Hsinchu 30010, Taiwan. sjcheng@mail.nctu.edu.tw.
authors.forename: Shun-Jen
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: Department of Electro-Physics and Department of Photonic & Institute of Electro-Optical Engineering, National Chiao Tung University, No. 1001, University Road, Hsinchu 30010, Taiwan. chyong@mail.nctu.edu.tw.
authors.forename: Chyong-Hua
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Electro-Physics and Department of Photonic & Institute of Electro-Optical Engineering, National Chiao Tung University, No. 1001, University Road, Hsinchu 30010, Taiwan. khwu@cc.nctu.edu.tw.
authors.forename: Kaung-Hsiung
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, National Taiwan University, No.1, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Road, Taipei 10617, Taiwan. haomingchen@ntu.edu.tw.
authors.forename: Hao-Ming
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Electronic Engineering, Chang-Gung University, No. 259, Wen-Hwa 1st Road, Kwei-Shan, Taoyuang 33302, Taiwan. sykuo@mail.cgu.edu.tw.|Department of Nuclear Medicine, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, 5, Fuxing Street, Kwei-Shan, Taoyuang 33302, Taiwan. sykuo@mail.cgu.edu.tw.
authors.forename: Shou-Yi
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Kuo
authors.affiliation: School of Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK. mdbc@ecs.soton.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Martin D B
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Charlton
authors.affiliation: Green Energy & Environment Research Laboratories, Industrial Technology Research Institute, No. 195, Sec. 4, Chung Hsing Road, Chutung, Hsinchu 31040, Taiwan. TP@itri.org.tw.
authors.forename: Tung-Po
authors.initials: TP
authors.lastname: Hsieh
authors.affiliation: Department of Electro-Physics and Department of Photonic & Institute of Electro-Optical Engineering, National Chiao Tung University, No. 1001, University Road, Hsinchu 30010, Taiwan. hckuo@faculty.nctu.edu.tw.
authors.forename: Hao-Chung
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Kuo
keywords: atomic layer deposition; chemical bath deposition; nanoparticles; thermolysis; thin-film deposition