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Thin films for photovoltaics deposited by plasma chemistry methods\n
Fejfar, Antonín
Thin films are key components for practically all of contemporary photovoltaic cells for solar energy utilization. Cells use thin films for optimizing light trapping, for selecting and collection of photogenerated charges and interface passivation or as absorber layers. Each year several hundreds of square kilometers of thin films are deposited mainly by plasma chemistry methods.
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Mechanical and Electrical Properties of Microcrystalline Silicon Thin Films
Vetushka, Aliaksei ; Fejfar, Antonín (advisor) ; Čech, Vladimír (referee) ; Sládek, Petr (referee)
Amorphous and nano- or micro- crystalline silicon thin films are intensively studied materials for photovoltaic applications. The films are used as intrinsic layer (absorber) in p-i-n solar cells. As opposed to crystalline silicon solar cells, the thin films contain about hundred times less silicon and can be deposited at much lower temperatures (typically around 200 0 C) which saves energy needed for production and makes it possible to use various low cost (even flexible) substrates. However, these films have a complex microstructure, which makes it difficult to measure and describe the electronic transport of the photogenerated carriers. Yet, the understanding of the structure and electronic properties of the material at nanoscale is essential on the way to improve the efficiency solar cells. One of the main aims of this work is the study of the structure and mechanical properties of the mixed phase silicon thin films of various thicknesses and structures. The key parameter of microcrystalline silicon is the crystallinity, i.e., the microcrys- talline volume fraction. It determines internal structure of the films which, in turn, decides about many other properties, including charge transport and mechanical sta- bility. Raman microspectroscopy is a fast and non-destructive method for probing the...
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Development and applications of near-field imaging methods in the terahertz spectral domain
Berta, Milan ; Kadlec, Filip (advisor) ; Fejfar, Antonín (referee) ; Adam, Auréle J.L. (referee)
We are reporting on a study of the near-field sensitivity and resolution of a metal-dielectric probe (MDP). The propagation of the electromagnetic field across the probe was studied experimentally by means of time-domain terahertz spectroscopy and numerically simulated by CST MicroWave Studio 2008. Several localised areas at the probe end facet were distinguished and showed to be sensitive to the local dielectric properties and local anisotropy of the sample. Contrast and sensitivity measurements were conducted in several configurations of a MDP; the results were confirmed by simulations. The acquired data were analysed by using singular value decomposition that enabled separating independent physical phenomena in the measured datasets and filtering external disturbances out of the signal. Independent components corresponding to the changes in the output terahertz pulse upon varying the probe-sample distance and reflecting the local anisotropy in a ferroelectric barium titanate (BaTiO3) crystal were extracted and identified. The domain structure with characteristic dimensions of about 5 um was resolved during imaging experiments on the ferroelectric BaTiO3 sample, i.e. the resolved structures were ten times smaller than the characteristic dimensions of the end facet of the probe and forty times smaller than...
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Application of Scanning Probe Microscope in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology
Konečný, Martin ; Klapetek, Petr (referee) ; Fejfar, Antonín (referee) ; Bartošík, Miroslav (advisor)
Tato doktorská práce se zabývá rastrovací sondovou mikroskopií (Scanning Probe Microscopy – SPM) a jejím využitím v nanovědách a nanotechnologiích. Konkrétně je zde kladem důraz především na pokročilé techniky mikroskopie atomárních sil (Atomic Force Microscopy – AFM), jako je Kelvinova silová mikroskopie (Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy – KPFM) a vodivostní AFM. Samotné aplikace těchto technik jsou dále zaměřené zejména na oblast výzkumu grafenu. V práci je nejprve stručně rozebrán princip fungování SPM a následně jsou diskutovány jednotlivé aplikace AFM a KPFM zaměřené na charakterizaci vlastností jak samotného gafenu, tak i zařízeních fungujících na jeho bázi. Dále se práce zabývá možnostmi využití AFM integrovaného v jednom zařízení spolu se rastrovacím elektronovým mikroskopem (Scanning Electron Microscopy - SEM). Z tohoto přehledu vyplývají čtyři hlavní témata doktorského výzkumu, které se věnují studiu přesunu elektrikého náboje mezi grafenovými nanostrukturami, přípravě a charakterizaci hydrogenovaného grafenu a grafen-kovových hybridních struktur s uplatněním v biosensorice. Aspekty jednotlivých témat jsou následně podrobně rozebrány a podpořeny adekvátními experimentálními výsledky. Na závěr jsou nastíněny plány budoucího výzkumu týkajícího se těchto čtyř témat
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Thin-Film Solar Cells Characterization and Microstructure Defect Analysis
Škvarenina, Ľubomír ; Šály,, Vladimír (referee) ; Fejfar, Antonín (referee) ; Macků, Robert (advisor)
Thin-film solar cells based on an absorber layer of chalcogenide compounds (CIGS, CdTe) are today among the most promising photovoltaic technologies due to their long-term ability to gain a foothold in mass commercial production as an alternative to conventional Si solar cells. Despite this success, the physical origin of the defects present in the thin films are still insufficiently elucidated, especially in the compounds of the chalcopyrite family Cu(In_{1x},Ga_{x})(S_{y},Se_{1y})_{2}. The research focuses on the identification and analysis of microstructural defects responsible for the electrical instability of chalcopyrite-based thin-film solar cells with a typical heterostructure arrangement ZnO:Al/i-ZnO/CdS/Cu(In,Ga)Se_{2}/Mo. The non-uniform polycrystalline nature of semiconductor materials in this complex multilayer structure requires a comprehensive analysis of electro-optical, structural and compositional properties associated with the actual morphology at the macroscopic, microscopic or even nanoscopic level. The observed predominant ohmic or non-ohmic current conduction in the dark transport characteristics was also reflected in the slope deviations of the excessive noise fluctuations, which were in the spectral domain exclusively in the form of flicker noise with dependency S_{i} ~ f^{1}. Spatially resolved electroluminescence based on stimulated photon emission by charge carriers injecting into the depletion region, not only showed a significantly inhomogeneous distribution of intensity in planar heterojunction under forward bias, but also revealed light emitting local spots in reverse bias due to a trap-assisted radiative recombination through the high density of defect states. Microscopic examination of the defect-related light emitting spots revealed rather extensive defective complexes with many interruptions through the layers, especially at the heterojunction CdS/Cu(In,Ga)Se_{2} interface. Besides, the high leakage current via these defective complexes subsequently led to a considerable local overheating, which caused a clearly observable structural and morphological changes, such as deviations in absorber layer stoichiometry due to Cu–In–Ga–Se segregation, Cu-rich and Ga-rich grains formation with an occurrence of Se-poor or Cu_{x}Se_{y} secondary phases regions, material redeposition accompanied by evaporation of ZnO:Al/i-ZnO/CdS layers together with the formation of Se structures on the surface around the defects. Within the research, analytical modelling of transport characteristics was implemented with parameters extraction of individual transport mechanisms to understand the non-ohmic shunt behaviour due to leakage current. In addition to the proper current path along the main heterojunction, the proposed model contains parasitic current pathways as a consequence of recombination-dominated charge transport or current conduction facilitated by multi-step tunnelling via high density of mid-gap defect states in the depletion region, ohmic leakage current caused by pinholes or low-resistance paths along grain boundaries in Cu(In,Ga)Se_{2}, or space-charge limited current due to metals diffusion from the ZnO:Al layer and grid Ag contacts through disruptions in i-ZnO/CdS layers.
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