Energy conversion applications of atomic layer deposition
Any method capable of depositing thin functional layers onto structured substrates, and especially into nanoporous frameworks, is conferred with a direct relevance towards energy conversion applications. The conformal coating of non-planar samples is a property that uniquely defines atomic layer deposition (ALD), which is why ALD is inherently suited to the preparation of energy conversion devices. ALD achieves a thin film growth by using well-defined surface chemistry. Two or more complementary, quantitative surface reactions performed subsequently and repeated in an alternating manner result in the deposition of a solid in a layer-by-layer fashion. This Thematic Series will certainly provide the reader with novel ideas for exploiting ALD in the energy realm, and spur further original work in this rapidly developing research area. After its industrial application in electroluminescent displays, semiconductor logics, magnetic and semiconductor memory, ALD has the potential to also become a critical tool in the area of energy conversion.
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- Published 16 Oct 2013
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Figure 1: Schematic view of the proposed system, including all tunable geometric parameters. An inorganic mat...
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Figure 2: Preparative scheme: (a) –e–, H2C2O4/H2O, 7 °C (two-step anodization); (b) H3PO4/H2O, 45 °C (pore wi...
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Figure 3: Reaction of a 200-nm thick SiO2 layer on a silicon wafer with Mg element at 700 °C: (a) spectroscop...
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Figure 4: Spectroscopic ellipsometry of flat samples at various stages of preparation: initial substrate with...
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Figure 5: (a) Photograph of two nanoporous samples before and after the reduction by Li vapor with the subseq...
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Figure 6: X-ray photoelectron spectrum of a Si nanotube sample at the end of the preparation: (a) survey spec...
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Figure 7: Cyclic voltammetry recorded on a silicon nanotube sample at 0.1 mV s−1 in 1 mol L−1 LiPF6 in ethyle...
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- Published 28 Oct 2013
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Figure 1: a) SEM images of a cross section of ZnO ALD films deposited on Si substrates by 200, 500, and 1000 ...
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Figure 2: a) AFM images of the size of 3 × 3 μm2 of ZnO thin films deposited by 100, 200, 500 and 1000 cycles...
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Figure 3: a) Transmittance spectra, b) band gap estimation, and c) band gap and Urbach energies of ZnO ALD fi...
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Figure 4: PL and absorption spectra of 25 (a), 49.8 (b), 124 (c), and 250 nm (d) thick ZnO ALD films.
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Figure 5: UV–vis intensity ratio of ZnO ALD films of different thickness.
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- Published 06 Nov 2013
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Figure 1: Surface recombination velocity, Seff,max [cm/s]. (a) and (b) Seff,max for randomly textured and pol...
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Figure 2: Absorbance as a function of the wavelength in the range from 300 to 600 nm. Dashed lines belong to ...
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Figure 3: Reflectance curves of Al2O3-coated randomly textured c-Si (a) and polished c-Si (b) for different f...
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- Full Research Paper
- Published 08 Nov 2013
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Figure 1: Thickness distributions of T-ALD at 200 °C (a) and PE-ALD films at 200 °C (b), 80 °C (c) and rt (d)...
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Figure 2: Ellipsometry results showing thickness homogeneity (a), growth rate (b) and refractive index at 632...
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Figure 3: XPS survey spectra (Mg Kα) of the PE-ALD layers deposited at 200 °C (red curve), 80 °C (blue) and r...
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Figure 4: O1s (a) and Al2p (b) core level spectra (Mg Kα) of the PE-ALD layers deposited at 200 °C (red curve...
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Figure 5: C1s core level spectra (Mg Kα) of the PE-ALD layers deposited at 200 °C (red curve), 80 °C (blue) a...
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Figure 6: Al2p core level spectra (Mg Kα) of the PE-ALD layers deposited at 200 °C (red curve), 80 °C (blue) ...
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Figure 7: O1s core level spectra (Mg Kα) of the PE-ALD samples prepared at rt (a) and 80 °C (b) substrate tem...
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Figure 8: O1s to Al2p elemental ratio versus substrate temperature of PE-ALD layers (blue squares); the data ...
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Figure 9: O1s (a) and Al2p (b) core level spectra of the PE-ALD (red curves) and T-ALD layers (black) deposit...
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Figure 10: Carbon content within PE-ALD layers (blue squares) versus substrate temperature determined by EDX (...
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Figure 11: Infrared absorption index data for PE-ALD layers deposited at 200 °C (red curve), 80 °C (blue) and ...
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Figure 12: Reactor and CCP source of the SENTECH ALD system: SI ALD LL.
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- Full Research Paper
- Published 13 Nov 2013
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Figure 1: Growth rate of pure In2S3 a) as function of the process temperature b) as function of the In(acac)3...
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Figure 2: Influence of the number of In2O3 cycles on (a) the growth rate while using H2O as oxygen precursor ...
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Figure 3: Influence of the ratio of In2O3 cycles on the film absorption spectra when using H2O as oxygen prec...
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Figure 4: Influence of a) the number of In2O3 cycles on the growth rate b) the number of process cycles on th...
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Figure 5: Influence of the number of In2O3 cycle on the film transmittance when using O2 plasma as oxygen pre...
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Figure 6: Influence of the number of In2O3 cycles a) on the absorption and b) optical band gap when using O2 ...
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Figure 7: Surface mechanisms during the O2 plasma pulse.
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- Full Research Paper
- Published 22 Jan 2014
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Figure 1: XAS at the Ti-L2,3 edge measured for TiO2 films with thicknesses of 0.75 nm, 1.5 nm, 2.25 nm and 3 ...
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Figure 2: XAS at O-K edge measured for TiO2 films with thicknesses of 0.75 nm, 1.5 nm, 2.25 nm and 3 nm. The ...
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Figure 3: XAS difference spectra. The contribution of SiO2 to the XAS at the O-K edge was subtracted from the...
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Figure 4: Detailed view of feature C. The spectra were normalized in order to distinguish line-shape changes.
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- Full Research Paper
- Published 12 Feb 2014
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Scheme 1: Pd-catalyzed electrooxidation of HCOOH on Pd surfaces.
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Figure 1: Schematic description of the anodic alumina template fabrication and successive functionalization. ...
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Figure 2: (a) In situ QCM measurement of the NiO mass gain during the ALD process. (b) Enlarged view of the m...
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Figure 3: (a) SEM cross section of a NiO layer deposited in AAO membrane. (b) SEM image (obtained in backscat...
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Figure 4: (a) TEM image of NiO nanotubes after alumina template removal. (b) Enlarged view of NiO nanotubes.
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Figure 5: SEM image of Ni layer deposited in an AAO template after 3 h annealing in H2 at 300 °C of the initi...
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Figure 6: XPS survey spectrum of metallic Ni.
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Figure 7: ALD sequence during Pd deposition from Pd(hfac)2 and formaldehyde.
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Figure 8: In situ QCM measurements of Pd mass gain during the ALD process for Pd. (a) General evolution and (...
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Figure 9: SEM top views of Pd deposits after 100 ALD cycles onto (a) as-grown NiO and (b) reduced NiO films o...
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Figure 10: X-ray diffractogram of Pd deposited by ALD exhibiting a polycrystalline structure with a preferenti...
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Figure 11: XPS survey spectrum of metallic Pd.
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Figure 12: Cyclic voltammograms of Pd(100 ALD cycles)/Ni(1000 ALD cycles) catalysts in 0.5 M H2SO4 without (bl...
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Figure 13: Peak current densities of the electrooxidation of 1 M HCOOH in 0.5 M H2SO4 with various Pd contents...
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Figure 14: SEM micrograph of an anodic alumina oxide template. After the electropolishing, a sacrificial film ...
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- Published 14 Feb 2014
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Figure 1: Schematic drawings of the investigated solar cells structure based on zinc oxide nanorods (not to s...
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Figure 2: Cross-section and top view (up) SEM images illustrating zinc oxide nanorods grown at different pH v...
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Figure 3: Current–voltage characteristics for the ZnO:Al/ZnONR/Si/Al heterostructures measured under dark (to...
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Figure 4: SEM images of the three investigated types of structures with different surface morphologies.
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Figure 5: External quantum efficiency of the PV structures of samples A, B and C based on zinc oxide nanorods....
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- Full Research Paper
- Published 05 Mar 2014
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Figure 1: Illustration of one ALD cycle on a VACNT array. Upon exposure to the precursor gas (a: bulk gas dif...
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Figure 2: Flow chart of the precursor exposure/adsorption simulation for one ALD cycle.
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Figure 3: Results of the precursor adsorption kinetics simulation while using the parameters defined in Table 1. The...
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Figure 4: Comparison of the simplified model (Equation 18) and the simulation of the full diffusion model (solid line) w...
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Figure 5: Plot of deposited oxide thickness with respect to the VACNT depth for a multi-cycle ALD process, de...
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Figure 6: Experimental results for TiO2 coated VACNTs. (a) An SEM image of a VACNT array coated with 400 cycl...
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