Browsing by Author "Arendse, CJ"

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    Thermal stability and defect structure of hot-wire deposited amorphous silicon
    (UWC, 2004) Arendse, CJ; Knoesen, D
    Hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) thin films are presently used in several large-area thin-film applications. However, one major concern of a-Si:H is the fact that the stability of the material degrades when it is exposed to prolonged sunlight illumination. This effect, referred to as the Staebler-Wronski effect (SWE), is however reduced when using hot-wire (HW) deposited a-Si:H material with a low hydrogen concentration and favorable microstructure. In this thesis we report on the thermal stability of HW-deposited a-Si:H thin films, with different H-concentrations and bonding configurations, when exposed to elevated temperatures in excess of 100 "C.
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    Tin-oxide thin films by thermal oxidation
    (University of Western Cape, 2021) James, Amy Frances; Arendse, CJ
    Tin dioxide (SnO2) thin films are a worthy candidate for an electron transport layer (ETL) in perovskite solar cells, due to its suitable energy level, high electron mobility of 240 cm2 v-1 s- 1, desirable band gap of 3.6 - 4.0 eV, and ultimately proves to be suited for a low temperature thermal oxidation technique for ETL production. A variety of methods are available to prepare SnO2 thin films such as spin and dip coating and chemical bath deposition. However, the customary solid-state method, which incorporates thermal decomposition and oxidation of a metallic Sn precursor compound in an oxygen abundant atmosphere prevails to be low in cost, is repeatable and allows for large-scale processing.