• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.54.2-54.2
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• 2012

Solid-state dewetting of thin films is a process through which continuous solid films decay to form islands. Dewetting of thin films has long been a critical issue in microelectronics and much effort has been made to prevent the process and enhance the stability of films. On the other hand, dewetting has also been purposely induced to create arrays of particles and other structures for applications, including plasmonic structures and catalysts for growing nanotube and nanowire. We have investigated ways of producing regular structures via templated dewetting of thin films. Mainly, two different approaches have been used in our works to template dewetting of thin films: periodic topographical templating and planar patterning of epitaxially-grown films. Dewetting of topographically-patterned thin films results in the formation of nanoparticle arrays with spatial and crystallographic orders. Morphological evolution during templated-dewetting of single crystal films occurs in deterministic ways because of geometric and crystallographic constraints, and leads to the formation of regular structures with smaller sizes and more complex shapes than the initial patches. These results will be reviewed in this presentation.

• Macromolecular Research
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.181-186
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• 2009

We fabricated ordered micro/nano patterns induced by controlled dewetting on the topographically patterned PS/P4VP bilayer thin film. The method is based on utilizing microimprinting lithography to induce a topographically heterogeneous bilayer film that allows the controlled dewetting upon subsequent thermal annealing. The dewetting that was initiated strictly at the boundary of the thicker and thinner regions was guided by the presence of the topographic structure. The dewetting front velocity of the microdomains in the confined regions was linearly proportional to the measurement time, which enabled us to control the size of the dewet domain with annealing time. In particular, the submicron sized dot arrays between lines were generated with ease when the dewetting was confined into geometry with a few microns in size. The kinetically driven, non-lithographical pattern structures accompanied the pattern reduction to 400%. The pattern arrays on a transparent glass substrate were especially useful for non-circular microlens arrays where the focal length of the lens was easily tunable by controlling the thermal annealing.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.47 no.5
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• pp.316-321
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• 2009

Co nanoparticles on silica substrates were fabricated by inducing a thin-film dewetting through two different processes-furnace annealing and pulsed-laser annealing. The effects of annealing temperature, film thickness and laser energy density on dewetting morphology and mechanism were investigated. Co thinfilms with thicknesses between 3 to 15 nm were deposited using ion-beam sputtering, and then, in order to induce dewetting, thermally annealed in furnace at temperatures between 600 and $900^{\circ}C$. Some as-deposited films were irradiated using a Nd-YAG pulsed-laser of 266 nm wavelength to induce dewetting in liquid-state. Films annealed in furnace agglomerated to form nanoparticles above $700^{\circ}C$, and those average particle size and spacing were increased with an increase of film thickness. On the laser annealing process, above the energy density of $100mJ/cm^2$, metal films were completely dewetted and the agglomerated particles exhibited greater size uniformity than those on the furnace annealing process. A detailed dewetting mechanism underlaying both processes were discussed.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.151-156
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• 2006

A method for fabrication of nano-scale GaN structure by inductively coupled plasma etching is proposed, exploiting a thermal dewetting of Pt thin film as an etch mask. The nano-scale Pt metal islands were formed by the dewetting of 2-dimensional film on $SiO_2$ dielectric materials during rapid thermal annealing process. For the case of 30 nm thick Pt films, pattern formation and dewetting was initiated at temperatures greater $600^{\circ}C$. Controlling the annealing temperature and time as well as the thickness of the Pt metal film affected the size and density of Pt islands. The activation energy for the formation of Pt metal island was calculated to be 23.2 KJ/mole. The islands show good resistance to dry etching by a $CF_4$ based plasma for dielectric etching indicating that the metal islands produced by dewetting are suitable for use as an etch mask in the fabrication of nano-scale structures.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.48 no.9
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• pp.856-860
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• 2010

Silver nanoparticles were formed on silica substrates through thin film dewetting at high temperature. The microstructural and morphological evolution of the particles were characterized as a function of processing variables such as initial film thickness, annealing time, and temperature. Silver thin films were deposited onto the silica using a pulsed laser deposition system and annealed in reducing atmosphere to induce agglomeration of the films. The film thicknesses before dewetting were in the range of 5 to 25 nm. A noticeable agglomeration occurs with annealing at temperatures higher than $300^{\circ}C$, and higher annealing temperature increases particle size uniformity for the same film thickness sample. Average particle size linearly correlates to the film thickness, but it does not strongly depend on annealing temperature and time, although threshold temperature for complete dewetting increases with an increase of film thickness. Lower annealing temperature develops faceted surface morphology of the silver particles by enhancing the growth of the low index crystal plane of the particles.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
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• 2015.11a
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• pp.151-153
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• 2015

무전해도금법을 이용하여 Ag/Ni 코팅 Cu 플레이크를 제조한 후 Ni 코팅층의 P 함량에 따른 Ag dewtting 거동에 대한 연구를 수행하였다. Ni 코팅층 내 P 함량이 낮을수록 Ni 코팅층의 결정성 및 결정화 속도가 높아지는 것을 알 수 있었으며, 이는 Ni 코팅층 위에 형성된 Ag 코팅층의 dewetting 거동에 영향을 주는 것으로 분석되었다. 또한 격자 불일치도가 높을수록 잘 발생하는 dewetting 현상은 P 함량이 높아 결정성이 떨어지는 Ni 코팅층에서 더욱 빨리 일어남을 알 수 있었다.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Military Science and Technology
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• v.7 no.2 s.17
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• pp.100-108
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• 2004

Nitramine-polymer composites suffer from a problem known as dewetting. Dewetting adversely affects the performance and the sensitivity characteristics of an explosive composition. Voids, which are generated between explosive particles and binder on dewetting, act as initiation sites. For a PBXs as well as propellants, where good adhesion and mechanical properties are of great importance, dewetting therefore must be prevented by strong adhesion between the filler and the binder. The surface energy of materials is measured by Wilhelmy plate and wicking method. The interfacial energy between the filler and the binder is calculated from the disperse phase and the polar phase of surface energy. Time dependent compressive properties of composite explosives have been determined by stress-strain curves obtained at different strain rates and temperatures. The interfacial state of the PBX was observed through SEM. It was found from the result that the interface between the explosive and the binder becomes better adhesion with decreasing interfacial tension and increasing work of adhesion. The result clearly shows that the castable PBX has good adhesion more than the pressable PBX.

• Korean Journal of Optics and Photonics
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.215-219
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• 2018

In this paper we show that the localized surface-plasmon resonance of Ag nanoparticles produced by laser dewetting can be effectively utilized for improving the photocurrent and efficiency of a dye-sensitized $TiO_2$ solar cell. An Ag thin film deposited on a conducting glass substrate was dewetted into nanoparticles by a pulsed laser. A dye-sensitized $TiO_2$ solar cell fabricated on this substrate containing the Ag nanoparticles exhibited improved photovoltaic performance, compared to a reference cell. This is attributed to the increased light trapping that arises from the localized surface-plasmon resonance of the dewetted Ag nanoparticles.

• Applied Science and Convergence Technology
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.172-177
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• 2015

We present disordered moth eye structures on curved surfaces fabricated by dry etching of thermally dewetted metal nanoparticles. This lithography-free fabrication allows the formation of subwavelength scale nanostructures on the strongly inclined surfaces such as ball lens as well as on the microlens arrays with low curvature. In particular, we found that the size and average distance of nanostructures are closely related to the inclined angle of the surface. Experimental results on oblique angle deposition of metal thin films followed by thermal dewetting also support these effects.

• Proceedings of the Polymer Society of Korea Conference
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• 2006.10a
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• pp.188-188
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• 2006

We demonstrate two very simple and fast routes to fabricating ordered micro/nanopatterns of polymers over large areas on various substrates using controlled dewetting. The first method is based on utilizing microimprinting to induce the local thickness variation of an initially inverted bilayer which allows the controlled dewetting and partial layer inversion upon subsequent thermal annealing. In the second method, the self assembly of block copolymer was controlled on a chemically micropatterned surface produced by microcontact printing, being combined with its solvent vapor treatment. The kinetically driven, non-lithographical nanopattern structures were easily fabricated over large area by these approaches.