• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.1235-1241
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• 2012

Aluminium (Al)-doped zinc oxide (AZO) thin films with different Al concentrations were prepared by the solgel spin-coating method. Optical parameters such as the optical band gap, absorption coefficient, refractive index, dispersion parameter, and optical conductivity were studied in order to investigate the effects of the Al concentration on the optical properties of AZO thin films. The dispersion energy, single-oscillator energy, average oscillator wavelength, average oscillator strength, and refractive index at infinite wavelength of the AZO thin films were found to be affected by Al incorporation. The optical conductivity of the AZO thin films also increases with increasing photon energy.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.97-102
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• 2013

Aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) thin films were prepared by dc magnetron sputtering at room temperature and the effect of heat treatment on the structural, electrical and optical properties of the films were examined. As the annealing temperature and time increased, the resistivity decreased and the transmittance improved. All AZO films had c-axis oriented (002) plane of ZnO, regardless of the annealing process employed. As the annealing temperature and time increased, the crystallinity of AZO thin films increased due to the formation of a new ZnO phase in which Al was substituted for Zn. However, at the high annealing temperature of $400^{\circ}C$, the resistivity of the films increased via separation of Zn and Al from ZnO phase due to their low melting points. X-ray diffraction, field emission scanning electron micrograph and Hall effect measurement confirmed the formation of uniformly distributed new grains of ZnO substituted with Al. The variation of Al contents in AZO films was shown to be the primary factor for the changes in resistivity and carrier concentration of the films.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.21 no.9
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• pp.789-794
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• 2008

Zinc oxide (ZnO) has been widely studied for its practical applications such as transparent conduction electrodes for flat panel displays and solar cells. Especially, ZnO films show good chemical stability against hydrogen plasma, absence of toxicity, abundance in nature, and then suitable for photovoltaic applications. However, the fabrication process of thin film solar cells require a high substrate temperature and/or post heat treatment. Therefore, the layers have to withstand high temperatures, requiring an excellent stability without degrading their electronic and optical properties. In this paper, we investigated the stability of zinc oxide (ZnO) films doped with aluminum and hydrogen. Doped ZnO films were prepared by r.f. magnetron sputter and followed by heat treatment at different temperatures and for various times.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.535-538
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• 2004

Zinc Oxide (ZnO) films have attracted considerable attention for transparent conducting films, because of their high conductivity, good optical transmittance from UV to near IR as well as a low-cost fabrication. To increase the conductivity of ZnO, doping of group III elements (Al, Ga, In and B) has been carried out. Transparent conducting films have been applied for optoelectric devices, the development of the transparent conducting thin films on flexible light-weight substrates are required. In this research, the transparent conducting ZnO thin films doped with Aluminum (Al) on polymer substrates were deposited by the RF magnetron suputtering method, and the structural, optical and electrical properties were investigated.

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.731-739
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• 2014

Aluminum and boron co-doped zinc-oxide(AZOB) powders as transparent conducting oxide(TCO) were prepared by spray pyrolysis at $900^{\circ}C$. The micron-sized AZOB particles were prepared by spray pyrolysis from aqueous precursor solutions for aluminium, boron, and zinc. The micron-sized AZOB particle after the spray pyrloysis underwent post-heat treatment at $700^{\circ}C$ for 2 hours and it was changed fully to nano-sized AZOB particle by ball milling for 24 hours. The size of primary AZOB particle by Debye-Scherrer Equation and surface resistance of AZOB pellet were measured.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.421.1-421.1
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• 2016

We studied indium-doped zinc oxide (IZO) film grown by atomic layer deposition (ALD) as transparent conductive oxide (TCO). A variety of TCO layer, such as ZnO:Al (AZO), InSnO2(ITO), Zn (O,S) etc, has been grown by various method, such as ALD, chemical vapor deposition (CVD), sputtering, laser ablation, sol-gel technique, etc. Among many deposition methods, ALD has various advantages such as uniformity of film thickness, film composition, conformality, and low temperature deposition, as compared with other techniques. In this study, we deposited indium-doped zinc oxide thin films using diethyl[bis(trimethylsilyl)amido]indium [Et2InN(TMS)2] as indium precursor, DEZn as zinc precursor and H2O as oxidant for ALD and investigated the optical and electrical properties of IZO films. As an alternative, this liquid In precursor would has several advantages in indium oxide thin-film processes by ALD, especially for low resistance indium oxide thin film and high deposition rate as compared to InCp, InCl3, TMIn precursors etc. We found out that Indium oxide films grown by Et2InN(TMS)2 and H2O precursor show ALD growth mode and ALD growth window. We also found out the different growth rate of Indium oxide as the substrate and investigated the effect of the substrate on Indium oxide growth.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.51 no.6
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• pp.612-617
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• 2014

The microstructure, nonlinear properties, and impulse clamping characteristics of Pr/Co/Cr/Al co-doped zinc oxide ceramics were investigated with various contents of $Er_2O_3$. Increasing $Er_2O_3$ content increased the density of the sintered pellets from 5.69 to $5.83g/cm^3$, and decreased the average grain size from 10.6 to $6.5{\mu}m$. With increased $Er_2O_3$ content, the breakdown field increased from 2318 to 4205 V/cm, and the nonlinear coefficient increased from 19.4 to 40.2. The clamp characteristics were improved with the increase of the content of $Er_2O_3$. The varistors doped with 2.0 mol% exhibited the best clamp characteristics, in which the clamp voltage ratio was 1.40-1.73 at 1-50 A in an impulse current.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2003.03a
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• pp.191-191
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• 2003

가시광선영역에서 높은 광학적 투명도를 갖는 n-type 반도체인 ZnO 박막은 넓은 범위에서 응용되고 있다. 현재 ZnO 박막의 특성 향상을 위하여 여러 원소(Al, Ga)의 도핑을 시도하고 있다. 특히 Al-doped ZnO 박막은 sol-gel dip coating에 의해서도 높은 전기전도도와 투과율로 활발히 연구되고 있다 본 논문에서는 여러 도핑농도를 갖는 Al-doped ZnO 박막이 sol-gel dip coating법에 의해 준비되었다. Al-doped ZnO 박막은 zinc acetate [Zn($CH_3$COO$_2$)ㆍ2$H_2O$] powder 와 여러 도핑농도를 갖는 aluminum nitrate (Al(NO$_3$)$_3$ㆍ9$H_2O$) powder를 알코올에 용해하여 $H_2O$, Ethylene glycol, Ethylene diamine 등을 첨가하여 제조하였다 XRD와 SEM (Scanning electron microscope)이 막의 상형성 분석을 위해 이용되었으며, 가시광선 영역 투과율(UV/VIS spectrophotometer)과 표면전기저항(four point probe)이 주요 특성으로 분석되었다.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.90-90
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• 2011

Transparent conducting oxide (TCO) films have been intensively utilized in the electric applications, such as, displays, lightings and solar cells due to the good electric conductivity with an excellent transmittance of the visible light. We, herein present an excellent Al-doped ZnO film (AZO), which has been fabricated by co-sputtering method. An as-deposited AZO film had an optical transmittance of 84.78% at 550 nm and a resistivity of $7.8{\times}10^{-3}{\Omega}cm$. A rapid annealing process significantly improved the optical transmittance and electrical resistivity of the AZO film to 99.67% and $1{\times}10^{-3}{\Omega}cm$, respectively. The fabricated AZO film was fabricated for a metal-semiconductor-metal (MSM) structure. The AZO film-embedding MSM device was highly responsive to a UV light.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.237-242
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• 2012

We report on the NO gas sensing properties of Al-doped zinc oxide-carbon nanotube (ZnO-CNT) wire-like layered composites fabricated by coaxially coating Al-doped ZnO thin films on randomly oriented single-walled carbon nanotubes. We were able to wrap thin ZnO layers around the CNTs using the pulsed laser deposition method, forming wire-like nanostructures of ZnO-CNT. Microstructural observations revealed an ultrathin wire-like structure with a diameter of several tens of nm. Gas sensors based on ZnO-CNT wire-like layered composites were found to exhibit a novel sensing capability that originated from the genuine characteristics of the composites. Specifically, it was observed by measured gas sensing characteristics that the gas sensors based on ZnO-CNT layered composites showed a very high sensitivity of above 1,500% for NO gas in dry air at an optimal operating temperature of $200^{\circ}C$; the sensors also showed a low NO gas detection limit at a sub-ppm level in dry air. The enhanced gas sensing properties of the ZnO-CNT wire-like layered composites are ascribed to a catalytic effect of Al elements on the surface reaction and an increase in the effective surface reaction area of the active ZnO layer due to the coating of CNT templates with a higher surface-to-volume ratio structure. These results suggest that ZnO-CNT composites made of ultrathin Al-doped ZnO layers uniformly coated around carbon nanotubes can be promising materials for use in practical high-performance NO gas sensors.