• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.447-451
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• 2002

Pulsed DC-plasma nitriding has been applied to form nitride layer having only a diffusion layer. The discharge current with the variation of discharge gases is proportional to the intensity of $N_2^+$ peak in optical emission spectroscopy during the plasma nitriding. The discharge current, microhardness in surface of substrate and depth of nitride layer increased with the ratio of $N_2\;to\;H_2$ gas in discharge gases. When the ratio of $N_2\;to\;H_2$ is lower than 60% in the discharge gases, high microhardness value of 1100Hv nitride layer which contains no compound layer has been formed.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.24-28
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• 2005

New post plasma nitriding can achieve a high uniformity that have been difficult in DC nitriding and have a high productivity comparable to gas nitriding. However, it has not a enough high nitriding potential for a rapid nitriding, because surface activation or ion etching in the general plasma nitriding cannot be expected. Thus, in this study, the effects of pre-treatments with oxidation and reduction gas have been investigated to improve the nitriding kinetics of post plasma nitriding. An effective pre-treatment consisting of oxidation and reduction resulted in the increase of surface energy of STD 11. This induced the surface hardness and the effective nitriding depth of STD 11. It is thought that the increase of the surface energy and the surface area with pre-treatment promote the nucleation of nitriding layer.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.13 no.10
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• pp.828-833
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• 2000

Growth characteristics and microstructure of AIN thin films grown by plasma assisted molecular beam epitaxy on Si substrates have been investigated. Growing temperature and substrate orientation were chosen as major variables of the experiment. Reflection high energy electron diffraction (RHEED), X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and transmission electron microscopy/diffraction (TEM/TED) techniques were employed to characterize the micorstructure of the films. On Si(100) substrates, AlN thin films were grown along the hexagonal c-axis preferred orientation at temperature range 850-90$0^{\circ}C$. However on Si(111), the AlN films were epitaxially grown with directional coherency in AlN(0001)/Si(111), AlN(1100)/Si(110), and AlN(1120)/Si(112) at 85$0^{\circ}C$ and the epitaxial coherencry seemed to be slightly distorted with increasing temperature. The microstructure of AlN thin films on Si(111) substrates showed that the films include a lot of crystal defects and there exist micro-gaps among the columns.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.566-566
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• 2013

종래의 흑연 위주 연료전지 분리판에서 최근 고분자 전해질 막 연료전지가 높은 전력, 낮은 작동 온도로 자동차 산업에서 상당한 주목을 받고 있다. 분리판의 기술적 요구사항은 높은 전기 전도도, 높은 내식성, 가스 밀봉성, 경량성, 가공성, 저비용 등이다. 후보 물질로는 전기 전도성을 갖는 질화물계가 고려되고 있다. 기판으로는 스테인레스강이 가장 유력하며 Fe에 첨가된 Ni, Cr이 존재하므로 Cr 또는 CrN를 박막의 형태로 전자빔 증발법, 마그네트론 스퍼터링법으로 고속 증착하려는 시도가 있었다. 본 연구에서는, 스테인리스 강박(0.1 mm 이하)에 보호막으로 CrN을 선택하고 고속, 고품질증착을 위해서 새로운 방법인 스퍼터 승화법을 개발하였다. 박막의 품질을 개선할 수 있는 고밀도 유도 결합 플라즈마 영역 내에 Cr 소스를 직류 바이어스 함으로써 가열 및 스퍼터링이 일어나도록 하였다. 5 mTorr의 Ar 유도 결합 플라즈마를 2.4 MHz, 500 W로 유지하면서 직류 바이어스 전력을 30 W (900 V, 0.02 A) 인가하고, $N_2$의 유량을 0.5, 1.0, 1.5 SCCM로 변화를 주어 반응성 증착 공정의 결과로 얻어지는 CrN 박막의 특성을 분석하였다. N2의 유량이 증가할수록 $Cr_2N$이 감소하고, CrN이 증가하는 것을 확인하였다. 또한 부식성과 접촉저항을 측정하였다. 부식 전위는 N20 SCCM 보다 모두 상승하는 것을 확인하였고, $N_21$ SCCM에서 부식 전류 밀도가 2.097E-6 (at 0.6V) $A/cm^2$로 나타났다. 접촉저항 에서는 시료 당 3군데(top, center, bottom)를 측정하였다. 전기전도도 측면에서 가장 좋은 결과는 $N_21$ SCCM 일 때 $28.8m{\Omega}{\cdot}cm^2$의 접촉저항을 갖는 경우였다. 미국 에너지성의 기준은 부식 전류밀도 1.E-6 $A/cm^2$이하, 접촉 저항 $0.02{\Omega}m^2$이므로 매우 근접한 결과를 보이고 있다.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.311-311
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• 2011

$TiN{\times}$박막은 우수한 내마모성 및 내부식성, 높은 경도 그리고 열적 안정성 등으로 인하여, 절삭공구 및 기계적 부품의 하드코팅, 2차 연료 전지용 확산방지막의 코팅재료로서 광범위하게 사용되어지고 있다. 일반적으로 $TiN{\times}$ 박막은 화학 기상 증착법(CVD)을 이용하였으나, 최근에는 대면적에 균일한 코팅이 가능하고 기판과 박막상의 부착력이 우수하며, 프로세스를 제어하기 쉬운 물리적 기상 증착법(PVD)의 스퍼터링법에 대한 관심이 고조되고 있다. 그러나 스퍼터링법으로 증착된 $TiN{\times}$ 박막의 물성은 주상구조와 국부적 표면결함을 포함하는 박막의 미세구조에 의존하기 때문에 주상구조 사이에 존재하는 Void 와 Pinhole 그리고 crack들이 원인으로 작용하여, 내부식성 및 기계적 특성이 급속도로 저하되는 단점이 있다. 이러한 단점을 보완하기 위해서, 본 연구에서는 기판온도를(RT, $200^{\circ}C$, $400^{\circ}C$)증가시켜 실험 하였다. 이는 온도증가에 따른 박막의 치밀화가 이루어지고 결함이 감소하여 내부식성 특성향상이 기대되어진다. 또한 플라즈마 밀도를 높이기 위해서, 기존 DC 마그네트론 스퍼터링법에 전자기장을 추가로 인가하였다. 이는 플라즈마 밀도증가에 따른 고반응성의 질소 래디컬의 생성율 증가에 기인하여 박막 형성시 질화반응을 촉진시킴으로써 박막의 치밀화 및 내부식성 특성향상이 기대되어진다.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.177-178
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• 2012

In this experiment, post-nitriding treatment has been performed at $400^{\circ}C$ on AISI 316 stainless steel which is plasma carburized previously at $430^{\circ}C$ for 15 hours. Plasma nitriding was implemented on AISI 316 stainless steel at various gas compositions (25% N2, 50% N2 and 75% N2) for 4 hours. Additionally, during post nitriding Ar gas was used with H2 and N2 to observe the improvement of treatment. After treatment, the behavior of the hybrid layer was investigated by optical microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and micro-hardness testing. Potentiodynamic polarization test was also used to evaluate the corrosion resistance of the samples. Meanwhile, it was found that the surface hardness increased with increasing the nitrogen gas content. Also small percentage of Ar gas was introduced in the post nitriding process which improved the hardness of the hardened layer but reduces the corrosion resistance compared with the carburized sample. The experiment revealed that AISI 316L stainless steel showed better hardness and excellent corrosion resistance compared with the carburized sample, when 75% N2 gas was used during the post nitriding treatment. Also addition of Ar gas during post nitriding treatment were degraded the corrosion resistance of the sample compared with the carburized sample.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.10-13
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• 2010

We studied the effect of $O_2$ plasma treatments on the electrical property of Ti / Al ohmic contacts to N-face n-type GaN. The surface of N-face, n-type GaN has been treated with $O_2$ plasma for 120 s before the deposition of bilayered electrodes, Ti (50 nm) / Al (35 nm), and its contact resistance was compared with that of the reference sample without $O_2$ plasma. As a result, we found that the ohmic contact was reduced from $4.3\;{\times}\;10^{-1}\;{\Omega}cm^2$ to $1.25\;{\times}\;10^{-3}\;{\Omega}cm^2$ by applying $O_2$ plasma on the surface of n-type GaN, which was attributed to the reduction in the Schottky barrier height (SBH), caused by nitrogen vacancies formed during the $O_2$ plasma process.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.11 no.12
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• pp.1063-1067
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• 2001

The effect of the pulse parameters(pulse ratio and frequency) on the characteristics of the nitrided layer in the pulsed plasma nitrified SCM435 Steels was investigated. Material properties of the nitrided layer were analysed by employing optical microscope, scanning electron microscope(SEM), X-ray diffractometer(XRD) and micro-Vickers hardness tester. It was found that both the compound layer thickness and the surface hardness decreased with decreasing of pulse ratios. At high pulse ratio, the compound layer thickness and the surface hardness were rapidly decreased with decreasing frequency compared to lower pulse ratios.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.325-333
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• 1998

A duplex surface treatment process of simultaneous aluminizing-chromizing process followed by plasma nitriding was performed on AISI HI3 steel and STS 403 steel. The properties of these duplex-treated steels were investigated and were compared with those of steels treated by single process of either simultaneous aluminizing-chromizing or plasma nilriding, in terms of microstructure, microhardness and high temperature wear resistance. Sim~dtaneous alumizing-chromizing process was done using a 2-step coating cycle and plasma nitriding process was done at $530^{\circ}C$ for 1.5 hour. AISI HI3 steel and STS 403 steel showed a FeA1 compound layer of approximately 350$\mu\textrm{m}$ thickness on the surface after simultaneous diffusion coating and nitrided layer of approximately 70-80$\mu\textrm{m}$ formed after the subsequent plasma nitriding process. The microhardness was improved much more by the duplex surface heatment than only by plasma nitriding. In addition the duplex treated specimens showed an improved high temperature wear resistance.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.60-70
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• 1996

Scuffing and severe wear of the highly stressed sliding components have been very critical problems in the development of a rotary compressor. In order to improve durability and reliability of the compressor, plasma ion-nitriding was applied on the shaft and the vane surface. The effects of different treatment conditions on the mechanical and tribological properties of the ion-nitrided surfaces were investigated. Ion-nitrided surfaces showed better tribological performances than untreated surfaces. The best wear performance was observed when the shaft was nitrided in the condition of 450$\circ$C, 7 hours, $N_2:H_2=1:4$ gas mixture by forming a ductile nitrided layer which has $\gamma'$ phase microstructure. As nitrogen gas pressure increased, $\varepsilon$ phase layer was formed. This hard phase layer was observed to be more beneficial for the vane in reducing friction and wear.