• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.397-397
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• 2013

The electrical, electronic, optical properties and the local structure of Nickel Oxide (NiO) thin film have been investigated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Reflection Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy (REELS), UV-spectrometer,Hall Effect measurement and X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS). The XPS results show that the Ni 2p spectra for all films consist of $Ni2p_{3/2}$ at around 854.5 eV which indicate the presence of Ni-O bond from NiO phase and for the annealed film at temperature above $200^{\circ}C$ shows the coexist Ni oxide and Ni metal phase. The REELS spectra showed that the band gaps of the NiO thin films were abruptly decreased with increasing temperature. The values of the band gaps are consistent with the optical band gaps estimated by UV-Spectrometer. The optical transmittance spectra shows that the transparency of NiO thin films in the visible light region was deteriorated with higher temperature due to existence of $Ni^0$. Hall Effect measurement suggest that the NiO thin films prepared at relatively low temperatures (RT and $100^{\circ}C$) are suitable for fabricating p-type semiconductor which showed that the best properties was achieved at $100^{\circ}C$, such as a low resistivity of $7.49{\Omega}.cm$. It can be concluded that the annealing process plays a crucial role in converting from p type to n type semiconductor which leads to reducing electrical resistivity of NiO thin films. Furthermore, the extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) spectrum at the Ni K-edge was used to address the local structure of NiO thin films. It was found that the thermal treatments increase the order in the vicinity of Ni atom and lead the NiO thin films to bunsenite crystal structure. Moreover, EXAFS spectra show in increasing of coordination number for the first Ni-O shell and the bond distance of Ni-O with the increase of substrate temperature.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.145-145
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• 2008

High-k materials have been paid much more attention for their characteristics with high permittivity to reduce the leakage current through the scaled gate oxide. Among the high-k materials, $ZrO_2$ is one of the most attractive ones combing such favorable properties as a high dielectric constant (k= 20 ~ 25), wide band gap (5 ~ 7 eV) as well as a close thermal expansion coefficient with Si that results in good thermal stability of the $ZrO_2$/Si structure. During the etching process, plasma etching has been widely used to define fine-line patterns, selectively remove materials over topography, planarize surfaces, and trip photoresist. About the high-k materials etching, the relation between the etch characteristics of high-k dielectric materials and plasma properties is required to be studied more to match standard processing procedure with low damaged removal process. Among several etching techniques, we chose the inductively coupled plasma (ICP) for high-density plasma, easy control of ion energy and flux, low ownership and simple structure. And the $BCl_3$ was included in the gas due to the effective extraction of oxygen in the form of $BCl_xO_y$ compounds. During the etching process, the wafer surface temperature is an important parameter, until now, there is less study on temperature parameter. In this study, the etch mechanism of $ZrO_2$ thin film was investigated in function of $Cl_2$ addition to $BCl_3$/Ar gas mixture ratio, RF power and DC-bias power based on substrate temperature increased from $10^{\circ}C$ to $80^{\circ}C$. The variations of relative volume densities for the particles were measured with optical emission spectroscopy (OES). The surface imagination was measured by scanning emission spectroscope (SEM). The chemical state of film was investigated using energy dispersive X-ray (EDX).

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.49 no.5
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• pp.404-411
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• 2012

The reliability of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) particularly depends on the high quality of solid oxide electrolytes. The application of thinner electrolytes and multi electrolyte layers requires a more reliable characterization method. Most of the investigations on thin film solid electrolytes have been made for the parallel transport along the interface, which is not however directly related to the fuel cell performance of those electrolytes. In this work an array of ion-blocking metallic Ti/Au microelectrodes with about a $160{\mu}m$ diameter was applied on top of an ultrathin ($1{\mu}m$) yttria-stabilized-zirconia/gadolinium-doped-ceria (YSZ/GDC) heterolayer solid electrolyte in a micro-SOFC prepared by PLD as well as an 8-${\mu}m$ thick YSZ layer by screen printing, to study the transport characteristics in the perpendicular direction relevant for fuel cell operation. While the capacitance variation in the electrode area supported the working principle of the measurement technique, other local variations could be related to the quality of the electrolyte layers and deposited electrode points. While the small electrode size and low temperature measurements increaseed the electrolyte resistances enough for the reliable estimation, the impedance spectra appeared to consist of only a large electrode polarization. Modulus representation distinguished two high frequency responses with resistance magnitude differing by orders of magnitude, which can be ascribed to the gadolinium-doped ceria buffer electrolyte layer with a 200 nm thickness and yttria-stabilized zirconia layer of about $1{\mu}m$. The major impedance response was attributed to the resistance due to electron hole conduction in GDC due to the ion-blocking top electrodes with activation energy of 0.7 eV. The respective conductivity values were obtained by model analysis using empirical Havriliak-Negami elements and by temperature adjustments with respect to the conductivity of the YSZ layers.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.73-79
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• 2008

In order to apply for transparent conductive oxide(TCO), we deposited ZnO thin films on the glass at room temperature by RF magnetron sputtering method. Deposition conditions for high transmittance and low resistivity were optimized in our previous studies. Under the deposition condition with the RF power of 200 W, target to substrate distance of 30 mm and working pressure of 5 mTorr, highly conductive($7.4{\times}10^{-3}{\Omega}cm$) and transparent(over 85%) ZnO films were prepared. Highly oriented ZnO film in the [002] direction were obtained with specifically designed ZnO targets. Systematic study on dependence of deposition parameters on electrical and optical properties of the as-grown ZnO films were mainly investigated in this work. And for application tests using these films as transparent conductive oxide anodes, wet chemical etching behaviors of ZnO films were also investigated using various chemicals. Wet-chemical etching behavior of ZnO films were investigated using various acid solutions. The concentrations of these different acid solutions were controlled to study the etching shapes and etching rate. ZnO films were anisotropically etched at various concentrations and wet etching led to crater-like surface structure. Also we firstly found that the etching rate and etching shapes of ZnO films strongly depended on the etchant concentrations (i.e. pH) and the etching rate is exponentially decreased with increasing pH values regardless of the acid etchants.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.362-362
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• 2014

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) can be regarded as a special variation of the chemical vapor deposition method for reducing film thickness. ALD is based on sequential self-limiting reactions from the gas phase to produce thin films and over-layers in the nanometer scale with perfect conformality and process controllability. These characteristics make ALD an important film deposition technique for nanoelectronics. Tantalum pentoxide ($Ta_2O_5$) has a number of applications in optics and electronics due to its superior properties, such as thermal and chemical stability, high refractive index (>2.0), low absorption in near-UV to IR regions, and high-k. In particular, the dielectric constant of amorphous $Ta_2O_5$ is typically close to 25. Accordingly, $Ta_2O_5$ has been extensively studied in various electronics such as metal oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors (FET), organic FET, dynamic random access memories (RAM), resistance RAM, etc. In this experiment, the variations of chemical and interfacial state during the growth of $Ta_2O_5$ films on the Si substrate by ALD was investigated using in-situ synchrotron radiation photoemission spectroscopy. A newly synthesized liquid precursor $Ta(N^tBu)(dmamp)_2$ Me was used as the metal precursor, with Ar as a purging gas and $H_2O$ as the oxidant source. The core-level spectra of Si 2p, Ta 4f, and O 1s revealed that Ta suboxide and Si dioxide were formed at the initial stages of $Ta_2O_5$ growth. However, the Ta suboxide states almost disappeared as the ALD cycles progressed. Consequently, the $Ta^{5+}$ state, which corresponds with the stoichiometric $Ta_2O_5$, only appeared after 4.0 cycles. Additionally, tantalum silicide was not detected at the interfacial states between $Ta_2O_5$ and Si. The measured valence band offset value between $Ta_2O_5$ and the Si substrate was 3.08 eV after 2.5 cycles.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.191-197
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• 2009

We have investigated the effect of strong p-type organic semiconductor $F_4$-TCNQ-doped CuPc hole transport layer on the performance of p-i-n type bulk heterojunction photovoltaic device with ITO/PEDOT:PSS/CuPc: $F_4$-TCNQ(5 wt%)/CuPc:C60(blending ratio l:l)/C60/BCP/LiF/Al, architecture fabricated via vacuum deposition process, and have evaluated the J-V characteristics, short-circuit current ($J_{sc}$), open-circuit voltage($V_{oc}$), fill factor(FF), and power conversion efficiency(${\eta}_e$) of the device. By doping $F_4$-TCNQ into CuPc hole transport layer, increased absorption intensity in absorption spectra, uniform dispersion of organic molecules in the layer, surface uniformity of the layer, and enhanced injection currents improved the current photovoltaic device with power conversion efficiency(${\eta}_e$) of 0.16%, which is still low value compared to silicone solar cell indicating that many efforts should be made to improve organic photovoltaic devices.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.46 no.11
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• pp.762-769
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• 2008

Hydrogenated amorphous silicon(a-Si : H) layers, 120 nm and 50 nm in thickness, were deposited on 200 $nm-SiO_2$/single-Si substrates by inductively coupled plasma chemical vapor deposition(ICP-CVD). Subsequently, 30 nm-Ni layers were deposited by E-beam evaporation. Finally, 30 nm-Ni/120 nm a-Si : H/200 $nm-SiO_2$/single-Si and 30 nm-Ni/50 nm a-Si:H/200 $nm-SiO_2$/single-Si were prepared. The prepared samples were annealed by rapid thermal annealing(RTA) from $200^{\circ}C$ to $500^{\circ}C$ in $50^{\circ}C$ increments for 30 minute. A four-point tester, high resolution X-ray diffraction(HRXRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and scanning probe microscopy(SPM) were used to examine the sheet resistance, phase transformation, in-plane microstructure, cross-sectional microstructure, and surface roughness, respectively. The nickel silicide on the 120 nm a-Si:H substrate showed high sheet resistance($470{\Omega}/{\Box}$) at T(temperature) < $450^{\circ}C$ and low sheet resistance ($70{\Omega}/{\Box}$) at T > $450^{\circ}C$. The high and low resistive regions contained ${\zeta}-Ni_2Si$ and NiSi, respectively. In case of microstructure showed mixed phase of nickel silicide and a-Si:H on the residual a-Si:H layer at T < $450^{\circ}C$ but no mixed phase and a residual a-Si:H layer at T > $450^{\circ}C$. The surface roughness matched the phase transformation according to the silicidation temperature. The nickel silicide on the 50 nm a-Si:H substrate had high sheet resistance(${\sim}1k{\Omega}/{\Box}$) at T < $400^{\circ}C$ and low sheet resistance ($100{\Omega}/{\Box}$) at T > $400^{\circ}C$. This was attributed to the formation of ${\delta}-Ni_2Si$ at T > $400^{\circ}C$ regardless of the siliciation temperature. An examination of the microstructure showed a region of nickel silicide at T < $400^{\circ}C$ that consisted of a mixed phase of nickel silicide and a-Si:H without a residual a-Si:H layer. The region at T > $400^{\circ}C$ showed crystalline nickel silicide without a mixed phase. The surface roughness remained constant regardless of the silicidation temperature. Our results suggest that a 50 nm a-Si:H nickel silicide layer is advantageous of the active layer of a thin film transistor(TFT) when applying a nano-thick layer with a constant sheet resistance, surface roughness, and ${\delta}-Ni_2Si$ temperatures > $400^{\circ}C$.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.47 no.5
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• pp.322-329
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• 2009

60 nm- and 20 nm-thick hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) layers were deposited on 200 nm $SiO_2/Si$ substrates using ICP-CVD (inductively coupled plasma chemical vapor deposition). A 10 nm-Ni layer was then deposited by e-beam evaporation. Finally, 10 nm-Ni/60 nm a-Si:H/200 nm-$SiO_2/Si$ and 10 nm-Ni/20 nm a-Si:H/200 nm-$SiO_2/Si$ structures were prepared. The samples were annealed by rapid thermal annealing for 40 seconds at $200{\sim}500^{\circ}C$ to produce $NiSi_x$. The resulting changes in sheet resistance, microstructure, phase, chemical composition and surface roughness were examined. The nickel silicide on a 60 nm a-Si:H substrate showed a low sheet resistance at T (temperatures) >$450^{\circ}C$. The nickel silicide on the 20 nm a-Si:H substrate showed a low sheet resistance at T > $300^{\circ}C$. HRXRD analysis revealed a phase transformation of the nickel silicide on a 60 nm a-Si:H substrate (${\delta}-Ni_2Si{\rightarrow}{\zeta}-Ni_2Si{\rightarrow}(NiSi+{\zeta}-Ni_2Si)$) at annealing temperatures of $300^{\circ}C{\rightarrow}400^{\circ}C{\rightarrow}500^{\circ}C$. The nickel silicide on the 20 nm a-Si:H substrate had a composition of ${\delta}-Ni_2Si$ with no secondary phases. Through FE-SEM and TEM analysis, the nickel silicide layer on the 60 nm a-Si:H substrate showed a 60 nm-thick silicide layer with a columnar shape, which contained both residual a-Si:H and $Ni_2Si$ layers, regardless of annealing temperatures. The nickel silicide on the 20 nm a-Si:H substrate had a uniform thickness of 40 nm with a columnar shape and no residual silicon. SPM analysis shows that the surface roughness was < 1.8 nm regardless of the a-Si:H-thickness. It was confirmed that the low temperature silicide process using a 20 nm a-Si:H substrate is more suitable for thin film transistor (TFT) active layer applications.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.417-423
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• 2011

A series of new quinoxaline-based thiophene copolymers (PQx2T, PQx4T, and PQx6T) was synthesized via Yamamoto and Stille coupling reactions. The $M_ws$ of PQx2T, PQx4T, and PQx6T were found to be 20,000, 12,000, and 29,000, with polydispersity indices of 2.0, 1.2, and 1.1, respectively. The UV-visible absorption spectra of the polymers showed two distinct absorption peaks in the ranges 350 - 460 nm and 560 - 600 nm, which arose from the ${\pi}-{\pi}^*$ transition of oligothiophene units and intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) between a quinoxaline acceptor and thiophene donor. The HOMO levels of the polymer ranged from -5.37 to -5.17 eV and the LUMO levels ranged from -3.67 to -3.45 eV. The electrochemical bandgaps of PQx2T, PQx4T, and PQx6T were 1.70, 1.71, and 1.72 eV, respectively, thus yielding low bandgap behavior. PQx2T, PQx4T, and PQx6T had open circuit voltages of 0.58, 0.42, and 0.47 V, and short circuit current densities of 2.9, 5.29 and 9.05 mA/$cm^2$, respectively, when $PC_{71}BM$ was used as an acceptor. For the solar cells with PQx2T-PQx6T:$PC_{71}BM$ (1:3) blends, an increase in performance was observed in going from PQx2T to PQx6T. The power conversion efficiencies of PQx2T, PQx4T, and PQx6T devices were found to be 0.69%, 0.73%, and 1.80% under AM 1.5 G (100 mW/$cm^2$) illumination.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.140-146
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• 2005

Fossil fired power plant produces the electric energy by using a thermal energy by the combustion of fossil fuels as like oil, gas and coal. The exhausted flue gas by the combustion of oil etc. contains usually many contaminated species, and especially sulfur-content has been controlled strictly and then FGD (Flue Gas Desulfurization) facility should be installed in every fossil fired power plant. To minimize the content of contaminations in final exhaust gas, high corrosive environment including sulfuric acid (it was formed during the process which $SO_2$ gas combined with $Mg(OH)_2$ solution) can be formed in cooling zone of FGD facility and severe corrosion damage is reported in this zone. These conditions are formed when duct materials are immersed in fluid that flows on the duct floors or when exhausted gas is condensed into thin layered medium and contacts with materials of the duct walls and roofs. These environments make troublesome corrosion and air pollution problems that are occurred from the leakage of those ducts. The frequent shut down and repairing works of the FGD systems also demand costs and low efficiencies of those facilities. In general, high corrosion resistant materials have been used to solve this problem. However, corrosion problems have severely occurred in a cooling zone even though high corrosion resistant materials were used. In this work, a new technology has been proposed to solve the corrosion problem in the cooling zone of FGD facility. This electrochemical protection system contains cathodic protection method and protection by coating film, and remote monitoring-control system.