• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.103-108
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• 2013

Epitaxial growth of a high-quality thin Si film is essential for the application to low-cost thin-film Si solar cells. A polycrystalline Si film was grown on a $SiO_2$ substrate at $450^{\circ}C$ by a Al-assisted crystal growth process. For the purpose, a thin Al layer was deposited on the $SiO_2$ substrate for Al-assisted crystal growth. However, the epitaxial growth of Si film resulted in a rough surface with humps. Then, we introduced a thin amorphous Si seed layer on the Al film to minimize the initial roughness of Si film. With the help of the Si seed layer, the surface of the epitaxial Si film was smooth and the crystallinity of the Si film was much improved. The grain size of the $1.5-{\mu}m$-thick Si film was as large as 1 mm. The Al content in the Si film was 3.7% and the hole concentration was estimated to be $3{\times}10^{17}/cm^3$, which was one order of magnitude higher than desirable value for Si base layer. The results suggest that Al-doped Si layer could be use as a seed layer for additional epitaxial growth of intrinsic or boron-doped Si layer because the Al-doped Si layer has large grains.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.22-26
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• 2001

Microstructures of AlN thin films on Si substrates grown by plasma assisted molecular beam epitaxy were analyzed with various growth temperatures and substrate orientations. Reflection high energy electron diffraction (RHEED) patterns were checked for the in-situ monitoring of the growth condition. X-ray diffraction(XRD), double crystal X-ray diffraction (DCXD), and transmission electron microscopy/diffraction (TEM/TED) techniques were employed to characterize the microstructure of the films after growth. On Si(100) sub-strates, AlN thin films were grown mostly along the hexagonal c-axis orientation at temperature higher than $850^{\circ}C$. On the other hand the AlN films on Si(111) were epitaxially grown with directional coherencies in AlN(0001)/Si(111), AlN(1100)/Si(110), and AlN(1120)/Si(112). The microstructure of AlN thin films on Si(111) substrates, with a full width at half maximum of almost 3000 arcsec at 2$\theta$=$36.2^{\circ}$, showed that the single crystal films were grown, even if they includ a lot of crystal defects such as dislocations and stacking faults.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.223-228
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• 2017

Aluminum nitride (AlN) powder was successfully synthesized at low temperature via carbothermal reduction and nitridation (CRN) assisted by microwave heating. The synthesis processes of AlN powder were investigated with X-ray diffraction, FE-SEM, FT-IR and TGA/DSC. Aluminum nitrate was used as an oxidizer and aluminum source, urea as fuel, and glucose as carbon source. These starting materials were mixed with D.I water and reacted in a flask at $100^{\circ}C$ for 20 minutes. After the reaction was finished, black foamy intermediate product was formed, which was considered to be an amorphous $Al_2O_3$ particles through intermediate product obtained by solution combustion synthesis (SCS) at the results of X-ray diffraction patterns and FT-IR. This intermediate product was nitridated at temperatures of $1300^{\circ}C$ and $1400^{\circ}C$ in $N_2$ atmosphere by a microwave heating furnace and then decarbonated at $600^{\circ}C$ for 2 hours in air. It should be noticed from FE-SEM images that as nitridated particles, identified as AlN from X-ray diffraction patterns, are covered with carbon residues. After decarbonating the nitridated powders, the spherical pure AlN powders were obtained without alumina and their particle sizes were dependent on the nitridating temperature with high temperature of $1400^{\circ}C$ giving large particles of around 70~100 nm.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.29 no.10
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• pp.579-585
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• 2019

In this study, we investigate the effect of Al/N source ratios and growth rates on the growth and structural properties of AlN films on c-plane sapphires by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy. Both growth rates and Al/N ratios affect crystal qualities of AlN films. The full width at half maximum (FWHM) values of ($10{\bar{1}}5$) X-ray rocking curves (XRCs) change from 0.22 to $0.31^{\circ}$ with changing of the Al/N ratios, but the curves of (0002) XRCs change from 0.04 to $0.45^{\circ}$ with changing of the Al/N ratios. This means that structural deformation due to dislocations is slightly affected by the Al/N ratio in the ($10{\bar{1}}5$) XRCs but affected strongly for the (0002) XRCs. From the viewpoint of growth rate, the AlN films with high growth rate (HGR) show better crystal quality than the low growth rate (LGR) films overall, as shown by the FWHM values of the (0002) and ($10{\bar{1}}5$) XRCs. Based on cross-sectional transmission electron microscope observation, the HGR sample with an Al/N ratio of 3.1 shows more edge dislocations than there are screw and mixed dislocations in the LGR sample with Al/N ratio of 3.5.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2000.07a
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• pp.111-114
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• 2000

Growth characteristics and microstructure of AlN 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 microstructure 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.

• 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.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.14 no.12
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• pp.972-978
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• 2001

Some effects of Al/N ratio on microstructure of AlN films grown on Si(111) substrates by PAMBE were investigated. Al/N ratio was controlled by rf power of N$_2$ plasma source system. Al excess or N excess conditions were obtained below or above 350 W rf power, respectively. Surface roughness and morphology of AlN film grown at Al/N=1.0 showed the best result. Under Al excess condition, it was suggested that excess Al atoms which did not contribute to the growth of AlN film prevent the normal crystal growth and make abnormal growth of some columns. However, under N excess condition, it was explained that some of the excess active N source turned into gas state and then desorbed out from substrate.

• Proceedings of the Korea Association of Crystal Growth Conference
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• 1996.06a
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• pp.75-87
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• 1996

This review is presented under the following headings: 1.Introduction 1.1 Brief review of the properties of AlN 1.2 Historical survey of work on ceramic and single crystal AlN 2.Thermochemical background 3.Crystal growth 4.Doping 5.Potential applications and future work The known properties of AlN which make it of interest for various are discussed briefly. The properties include chemical stability, crystal structure and lattice constants, refractive indices and other optical properties, dielectric constant, surface acoustic wave velocity and thermal conductivity. The history of work in single crystals, thin films and ceramics are outlined and the thermochemistry of AlN reviewed together with some of the relevant properties of aluminium and nitrogen; the problems encountered in growing crystals of AlN are shown to arise directly from these thermochemical relationships. Methods have been reported in the literature for growing AlN crystals from melts, solution and vapour and these methods are compared critically. It is proposed that the only practicable approach to the growth of AlN is by vapour phase methods. All vapour based procedures share the share the same problems: $.$the difficulty of preventing contamination by oxygen & carbon $.$the high bond energy of molecular nitrogen $.$the refractory nature of AlN (melting point~3073K at 100ats.) $.$the high reactivity of Al at high temperatures It is shown that the growth of epitactic layers and polycrystalline layers present additional problems: $.$chemical incompatibility of substrates $.$crystallographic mismatch of substrates $.$thermal mismatch of substrates The result of all these problems is that there is no good substrate material for the growth of AlN layers. Organometallic precursors which contain an Al-N bond have been used recently to deposit AlN layers but organometallic precursors gave the disadvantage of giving significant carbon contamination. Organometallic precursors which contain an Al-N bound have been used recently to deposit AlN layers but organometallic precursors have the disadvantage of giving significant carbon contamination. It is conclude that progress in the application of AlN to optical and electronic devices will be made only if considerable effort is devoted to the growth of larges, pure (and particularly, oxygen-free) crystals. Progress in applications of epi-layers and ceramic AlN would almost certainly be assisted also by the availability of more reliable data on the pure material. The essential features of any stategy for the growth of AlN from the vapour are outlined and discussed.

• Proceedings of the Korea Association of Crystal Growth Conference
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• 1996.06a
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• pp.5-18
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• 1996

The solid state cesium ion source os alumino-silicate based zeolite which contains cerium. The material is an ionic conductor. Cesiums are stably stored in the material and one can extract the cesiums by applying electric field across the electrolyte. Cesium ion bombardment has the unique property of producing high negative ion yield. This ion source is used as the primary source for the production of a negative ion without any gas discharge or the need for a carrier gas. The deposition of materials as an ionic species in the energy range of 1.0 to 300eV is recently recognized as a very promising new thin film technique. This energetic non-thermal equilibrium deposition process produces films by “Kinetic Bonding / Energetic Condensation" mechansim not governed by the common place thermo-mechanical reaction. Under these highly non-equilibrium conditions meta-stable materials are realized and the negative ion is considered to be an optimum paeticle or tool for the purpose. This process differs fundamentally from the conventional ion beam assisted deposition (IBAD) technique such that the ion beam energy transfer to the deposition process is directly coupled the process. Since cesium ion beam sputter deposition process is forming materials with high kinetic energy of metal ion beams, the process provider following unique advantages:(1) to synthesize non thermal-equilibrium materials, (2) to form materials at lower processing temperature than used for conventional chemical of physical vapor deposition, (3) to deposit very uniform, dense, and good adhesive films (4) to make higher doposition rate, (5) to control the ion flux and ion energy independently. Solid state cesium ion beam sputter deposition system has been developed. This source is capable of producing variety of metal ion beams such as C, Si, W, Ta, Mo, Al, Au, Ag, Cr etc. Using this deposition system, several researches have been performed. (1) To produce superior quality amorphous diamond films (2) to produce carbon nitirde hard coatings(Carbon nitride is a new material whose hardness is comparable to the diamond and also has a very high thermal stability.) (3) to produce cesiated amorphous diamond thin film coated Si surface exhibiting negative electron affinity characteristics. In this presentation, the principles of solid state cesium ion beam sputter deposition and several applications of negative metal ion source will be introduced.