To provide a crystalline oxide semiconductor film, an ion is made to collide with a target including a crystalline In—Ga—Zn oxide, thereby separating a flat-plate-like In—Ga—Zn oxide in which a first layer including a gallium atom, a zinc atom, and an oxygen atom, a second layer including an indium atom and an oxygen atom, and a third layer including a gallium atom, a zinc atom, and an oxygen atom are stacked in this order; and the flat-plate-like In—Ga—Zn oxide is irregularly deposited over a substrate while the crystallinity is maintained.

A peeling method at low cost with high mass productivity is provided. An oxide layer is formed over a formation substrate, a first layer is formed over the oxide layer using a photosensitive material, an opening is formed in a portion of the first layer that overlaps with the oxide layer by a photolithography method and the first layer is heated to form a resin layer having an opening, a transistor including an oxide semiconductor in a channel formation region is formed over the resin layer, a conductive layer is formed to overlap with the opening of the resin layer and the oxide layer, the oxide layer is irradiated with light using a laser, and the transistor and the formation substrate are separated from each other.

A p channel TFT of a driving circuit has a single drain structure and its n channel TFT, an LDD structure. A pixel TFT has the LDD structure. A pixel electrode disposed in a pixel unit is connected to the pixel TFT through a hole bored in at least a protective insulation film formed of an inorganic insulating material and formed above a gate electrode of the pixel TFT, and in an inter-layer insulation film disposed on the insulation film in close contact therewith. These process steps use 6 to 8 photo-masks.

A method to fabricate thin-film photovoltaic devices including a photovoltaic Cu(In,Ga)Se.sub.2 or equivalent ABC absorber layer, such as an ABC.sub.2 layer, deposited onto a back-contact layer characterized in that the method includes at least five deposition steps, during which the pair of third and fourth steps are sequentially repeatable, in the presence of at least one C element over one or more steps. In the first step at least one B element is deposited, followed in the second by deposition of A and B elements at a deposition rate ratio A.sub.r/B.sub.r, in the third at a ratio A.sub.r/B.sub.r lower than the previous, in the fourth at a ratio A.sub.r/B.sub.r higher than the previous, and in the fifth depositing only B elements to achieve a final ratio A/B of total deposited elements.

The invention provides a suitable method and an appropriate, PV film structure. This aim is achieved by a room temperature method in which aqueous dispersions are printed onto a substrate and cured by an accompanying reaction. The accompanying reaction forms gradients and also nanoscale structures at the film boundaries, which produce a PV active film having standard performance and a higher stability. At around 10% efficiency, stability and no initial loss in performance in the climatic chamber test can be obtained and over a 20 year test period, consistently less fluctuation can be achieved. The method is free from tempering or sintering steps, enables the use of technically pure, advantageous starting materials and makes the PV film structure available as a finished, highly flexible cell for a fraction of the typical investment in production or distribution.

Methods of making molybdenum sulfide (MoS.sub.2) on a stretchable substrate are disclosed. The method includes magnetron sputtering MoS.sub.2 onto a stretchable substrate, such as a stretchable polymeric material, at low temperatures to form a film precursor, and illumination annealing the film precursor to form high quality MoS.sub.2. The illumination source may be a laser or other source of radiation. Also, two-dimensional nanoelectronic devices made by the methods and/or from the high quality MoS.sub.2 are disclosed.

A method of forming an epitaxial layer on a substrate such as a sapphire wafer that does not readily absorb thermal radiation. The method includes coating a first side surface of the substrate with an energy-absorbing opaque material. The opaque material forms a thermally absorptive coating on the substrate. The coated substrate may be heated to remove contaminants from the thermally absorptive coating. The coated substrate is positioned in a vacuum deposition chamber and heated by directing radiative energy onto the thermally absorptive coating. An epitaxial layer such as GaN or SiGe is formed on a second side surface of the substrate opposite the thermally absorptive coating.

The field-effect mobility and reliability of a transistor including an oxide semiconductor film are improved. A semiconductor layer of a transistor is formed using a composite oxide semiconductor in which a first region and a second region are mixed. The first region includes a plurality of first clusters containing one or more of indium, zinc, and oxygen as a main component. The second region includes a plurality of second clusters containing one or more of indium, an element M (M represents Al, Ga, Y, or Sn), zinc, and oxygen. The first region includes a portion in which the plurality of first clusters are connected to each other. The second region includes a portion in which the plurality of second clusters are connected to each other.

A method for manufacturing a CZTS based thin film having a dual band gap slope, comprising the steps of: forming a Cu.sub.2ZnSnS.sub.4 thin film layer; forming a Cu.sub.2ZnSn(S,Se).sub.4 thin film layer; and forming a Cu.sub.2ZnSnS.sub.4 thin film layer. A method for manufacturing a CZTS based solar cell having a dual band gap slope according to another aspect of the present invention comprises the steps of: forming a back contact; and forming a CZTS based thin film layer on the back contact by the method described above.

Methods of making a semiconductor layer from nanocrystals are disclosed. A film of nanocrystals capped with a ligand can be deposited onto a substrate; and the nanocrystals can be irradiated with one or more pulses of light. The pulsed light can be used to substantially remove the ligands from the nanocrystals and leave the nanocrystals unsintered or sintered, thereby providing a semiconductor layer. Layered structures comprising these semiconductor layers with an electrode are also disclosed. Devices comprising such layered structures are also disclosed.