Sharif Digital Repository

The effect on the thermal parameters of superconducting transition-edge bolometers produced on a single crystalline SrTiO3 (STO) substrate with and without a CeO2 buffer layer was investigated. Metal-organic deposition was used to deposit the 20-nm CeO2 buffer layer, whereas RF magnetron sputtering was applied to fabricate 150-nm-thick superconducting YBa2Cu3O7-δ (YBCO) thin film. The critical transition temperature for both of the YBCO films was 90 K, and the transition width was ∼1.9 K. The bolometers fabricated from these samples were characterized with respect to the voltage phase and amplitude responses, and the results were compared with that of simulations conducted by applying a... 

Epitaxial cerium oxide (CeO2) buffer layer has been grown on lanthanum aluminate (LAO) single crystal substrates for fabrication of c-axis oriented YBa2Cu3O7-x (YBCO). Precursor solution of cerium acetylacetonates with viscosity of 0.6 centipoises was spin coated on the 1×1 cm area LAO substrates. The calcination was carried out by very slow ramp (1°C per minute) until the final temperature of 500°C in oxygen flow to remove most of the organic compounds. The final heat treatment has been done at 780°C by a ramp of 20° per minute in gas flow of mixed argon-oxygen with 5 Pa partial pressure of oxygen. The thickness of the deposited CeO2 buffer layer was 20 nm. Then, 100 nm thick YBCO film was... 

Organometal halide perovskite solar cells have been constructed using soluble tetra-n-butyl-copper phthalocyanine as hole transporting material. Devices were constructed and characterized under ambient conditions of 50–60% ambient humidity. Soluble copper phthalocyanine gave a modest PCE of 7.3% but when a buffer layer of either Al2O3 or graphene oxide was introduced between the perovskite and the hole transporting layer the cell efficiency extensively increased and reached 14.4% in the presence of graphene oxide. Corresponding data obtained by employing the standard spiro-OMeTAD as hole transporter gave equivalent performance. Combination then of tetra-n-butyl-copper phthalocyanine with... 

The performance of the magnesium fluoride/chromium/gold in-line fiber optic polarizer on the thickness of magnesium fluoride buffer layer and chromium metal thin film was theoretically investigated. To prove the theoretical study, the magnesium fluoride/chromium/gold polarizer was made based on the simulation results. The obtained polarizer showed an extinction ratio of about 40 dB which is in a good agreement with the theoretical result at the corresponding thicknesses. Both theoretical and experimental results showed that by covering the side polished single mode fiber with the optimum layer thicknesses, a novel and an efficient fiber polarizer with the high extinction ratio could be... 

Thermally stable cubic silver nanoparticles were grown by simply annealing a silver nano-thickness layer on a crystalline TiN buffer layer deposited on a Si(1 0 0) substrate. Formation of silver nanocubes was investigated by scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, x-ray diffractometry and UV-visible spectroscopy. The shapes of the silver nanoparticles were controlled by the thickness of the Ag layer. The silver nanocubes were self-ordered single crystals bounded mainly by {1 0 0} facets. It was found that a change in the shape of the nanoparticles from semi-spherical to cubic resulted in a substantial variation of their surface plasmon resonance absorption peak from 410 to 590... 

Perovskite solar cells have been constructed under the standard procedure by employing soluble tetratriphenylamine-substituted Zn phthalocyanine as hole transporting material. Solution processed device construction was carried out under ambient conditions of 50–60% ambient humidity. Triphenylamine substitution played the double role of imparting solubility to the core metal phthalocyanine as well as to introduce electron-rich ligands, which could enhance the role of Zn phthalocyanine as hole transporter. Indeed, the obtained material was functional. The present data highlight tetratriphenylamine-substituted Zn phthalocyanine as hole transporting material but also highlight the importance of... 

A recently developed two-level undercut-profile substrate (2LUPS), containing two levels of plateaus connected by a curved wall with an undercut profile, enables self-forming filaments in a coated conductor during physical line-of-sight deposition of buffer and superconducting layers. In the present study, the 2LUPS concept is applied to a commercial cube-textured Ni-5at.%W tape, and the surface of the 2LUPS coated with two Gd2Zr2O7 buffer layers using chemical solution deposition is examined. Except for narrow regions near the edge of upper plateaus, the plateaus are found to be covered by strongly textured Gd2Zr2O7 buffer layers after dip coating and sintering  

CdS is conventionally used as the n-type buffer layer in chalcopyrite (CIG(S, Se)) and Kesterite (CZT(S, Se)) solar cells. CdS is toxic and there are wide attempts to find substitutes for it. Here, we suggest SnS2 as a possible alternative. SnS2 films were deposited by pulsed laser deposition (PLD), characterized to estimate carrier concentration and electron affinity values, and the obtained values were used to model a CZT(S, Se) solar cell. The experimental values of a benchmark CZT(S, Se) cell with efficiency of 12.3% were employed to obtain the density and energy position of defects in CZT(S, Se) and validating the model. We observed that SnS2 results in almost identical performance as... 

Tin sulfide (SnS2) has recently attracted considerable attention due to its layered structure that may form two dimensional morphologies. It is an n-type semiconductor with band gap and electron affinity similar to CdS and In2S3; therefore can be regarded as an alternative for these materials in thin film solar cells. Here, we synthesis of SnS2 nanoparticles with different morphology in different ratio of water-ethanol mixed solution by solvothermal method, and observe that more ethanol leads to large sheet like morphologies, while water based synthesis results in very small nanosheets. A challenge in wet deposition of device-quality thin films of SnS2 is the requirement for highly dispersed... 

Today manufacturing of high efficiency chalcogenide thin film solar cells is based on high cost vacuum-based deposition processes at high temperature (>500 °C) and in chalcogen -containing atmosphere. In this paper, we introduce a simple vacuum-free and selenization-free, solution processing for fabricating a superstrate-type CuInS2 (CIS) solar cell. The absorber, buffer and blocking layers were all deposited by spin coating of molecular precursor inks. We demonstrate the deposition of In2S3 buffer layer by sol-gel spin casting for the first time. The rapid sintering process of CIS layer was carried out at 250 °C that is considered a very low temperature in CIGS thin-film technologies. A... 

The efficiency of planar perovskite solar cells (PSCs) with SnO2 as electron transport layer is already more than 19% achieved under controlled atmosphere. PSCs with solution processed SnO2 show high hysteresis and low fill factor. One way to improve the planar PSCs is using buffer layer between electron transport layer and perovskite to enhance the photo-electron extraction process. In this study, SnO2 and SnO2/CdS layers were fabricated by solution process using a suspension including CdS nanoparticles synthesized via a simple solution route. Then planar PSCs with the structure of Glass/FTO/ETL/Perovskite/Sprio-OMeTAD/Au were fabricated in ambient air condition using SnO2 and SnO2/CdS as... 

The sand–bentonite mixture is used as the buffer layer in nuclear waste disposals. The buffer layer, as a non-permeable protective layer, is generally exposed to temperature gradients and the long-term subjection to temperature results in creep and more intact structure for the layer. In the present study, thermally induced structure and its effects on the isotropic compression behavior and volume change behavior of buffer layer are evaluated. Thermal consolidation tests were conducted using a modified triaxial cell capable of handling temperatures up to 90 °C. In order to investigate the effects of thermal gradients on the behavior of the mixture, saturated specimens were cured at constant... 

Interface engineering has emerged as a great strategy for fabrication of high efficiency and stable perovskite solar cells (PSCs). Here, we deposit a thin layer of ZnS as a buffer layer at the interface of the perovskite absorber and electron transporting layer (ETL) using the atomic layer deposition (ALD) process. The impact of the ZnS layer on the photovoltaic characteristics of PSCs was investigated by comparison of two mesoscopic configurations, in which the ZnS layer is grown on compact TiO2 and on mesoporous TiO2 surfaces. Our results revealed that the addition of an ultrathin ZnS layer between the perovskite and ETL drastically improves the charge extraction properties and reduces... 

In terms of manufacturability, there is a high tendency to deposit light-absorbing CuInS2 films by solution processing methods like ink-based depositions. In particular, for nanoparticle inks, the synthesis of highly dispersed and stable inks, with uniformity in the deposition process, is a serious challenge. Here, we demonstrate a novel two-step low-temperature CuInS2 film deposition method in which the In2S3 is deposited first. It then partially is converted into CuInS2 through the infiltration of Cu+ ions in the In2S3 layer in a dip-coating process. The resulting films are highly uniform, with diffraction peaks indicating the formation of pure CuInS2 phase. The proper stoichiometry of... 

We report on the response of a monolithic high Tc transition-edge bolometer to about 3 mmWave for the first time. The detector structure consisting of 400-nm YBa2Cu3O7-x(YBCO) film on buffered yttria stabilized zirconia substrate without any coupled antenna, shows bolometric type responsivity to the 3-mmWave radiation at its transition temperature. The YBCO thin film Ce0.9La0.1O2 buffer layer are both fabricated by the metal-organic deposition method. The meander line pattern of the bolometer is designed for obtaining maximum absorption and responsivity possible when the polarized radiation of the source is aligned with the pattern. Meander lines are 50 micrometers wide and 1.5-mm long. We...