• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
• /
• v.3 no.3
• /
• pp.8-13
• /
• 2002

Controlled precipitation of quasi-binary semiconductor system is newly proposed as an effective and reliable technique for the formation of well-defined and crystallographically aligned semiconductor nanostructures. Using HgTe-PbTe quasi-binary semiconductor system, self-aligned HgTe nanocrystallites distributed three dimensionally within PbTe matrix were successfully formed by the simple three step heat treatment process routinely found in age hardening process of metallic alloys. Examination of the resulting nano precipitates using conventional transmission electron microscopy (CTEM) and high resolution TEM (HRTEM) reveals that the coherent HgTe precipitates form as thin discs along the (100) habit planes making a crystallographic relation of {100}$\_$HgTe///{100}$\_$PbTe/ and [100]$\_$HgTe///[100]$\_$PbTe/. It is also found that the precipitate undergoes a gradual thickening and a faceting under isothermal aging up to 500 hours without any noticeable coarsening. These results, combined with the extreme dimension of the precipitates (4-5 nm in length and sub-nanometer in thickness) and the simplicity of the formation process, leads to the conclusion that controlled precipitation is an effective method for preparing desirable quantum-dot nanostructures.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
• /
• v.30 no.2
• /
• pp.65-70
• /
• 2023

Nanoimprint lithography (NIL) has attracted much attention due to its process simplicity, excellent patternability, process scalability, high productivity, and low processing cost for pattern formation. However, the pattern size that can be implemented on metal materials through conventional NIL technologies is generally limited to the micro level. Here, we introduce a novel hard imprint lithography method, extreme-pressure imprint lithography (EPIL), for the direct nano-to-microscale pattern formation on the surfaces of metal substrates with various thicknesses. The EPIL process allows reliable nanoscopic patterning on diverse surfaces, such as polymers, metals, and ceramics, without the use of ultraviolet (UV) light, laser, imprint resist, or electrical pulse. Micro/nano molds fabricated by laser micromachining and conventional photolithography are utilized for the nanopatterning of Al substrates through precise plastic deformation by applying high load or pressure at room temperature. We demonstrate micro/nanoscale pattern formation on the Al substrates with various thicknesses from 20 ㎛ to 100 mm. Moreover, we also show how to obtain controllable pattern structures on the surface of metallic materials via the versatile EPIL technique. We expect that this imprint lithography-based new approach will be applied to other emerging nanofabrication methods for various device applications with complex geometries on the surface of metallic materials.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
• /
• v.9 no.3
• /
• pp.202-211
• /
• 2018

In this work, Fe-Pd alloy films have been electrodeposited on different substrates using an electrolyte containing $[Pd(NH_3)_4]^{2+}$ (0.02 M) and $[Fe-Citrate]^{2+}$ (0.2 M). The influences of substrate and overpotential on chemical composition, nucleation and growth kinetics as well as the electrodeposited films morphology have been investigated using energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), current-time transients, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns. In all substrates - brass, copper and sputtered fluorine doped tin oxide on glass (FTO/glass) - Fe content of the electrodeposited alloys increases by increasing the overpotential. Also the cathodic current efficiency is low due to high rate of $H_2$ co-reduction. Regarding the chronoamperometry current-time transients, it has been demonstrated that the nucleation mechanism is instantaneous with a typical three dimensional (3D) diffusion-controlled growth in the case of brass and copper substrates; while for FTO, the growth mode changes to 3D progressive. At a constant overpotential, the calculated number of active nucleation sites for metallic substrates is much higher than that of FTO/glass; however by increasing the overpotential, the number of active nucleation sites increases. The SEM micrographs as well as the XRD patterns reveal the formation of Fe-Pd alloy thin films with nanostructure arrangement and ultra-fine grains.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2011.08a
• /
• pp.76-76
• /
• 2011

Polymer-fullerene based bulk heterojunction (BHJ) solar cells can be fabricated in large area using low-cost roll-to-roll manufacturing methods. However, because of the low mobility of the BHJ materials, there is competition between the sweep-out of the photogenerated carriers by the built-in potential and recombination within the thin BHJ film [12-15]. Useful film thicknesses are limited by recombination. Thus, there is a need to increase the absorption by the BHJ film without increasing film thickness. Metal nanoparticles exhibit localized surface plasmon resonances (LSPR) which couple strongly to the incident light. In addition, relatively large metallic nanoparticles can reflect and scatter the light and thereby increase the optical path length within the BHJ film. Thus, the addition of metal nanoparticles into BHJ films offers the possibility of enhanced absorption and correspondingly enhanced photo-generation of mobile carriers. In this work, we have demonstrated several positive effects of shape controlled Au and Ag nanoparticles in organic P3HT/PC70BM, PCDTBT/PC70BM, Si-PCPDTBT/PC70BM BHJ-based PV devices. The use of an optimized concentration of Au and Ag nanomaterials in the BHJ film increases Jsc, FF, and the IPCE. These improvements result from a combination of enhanced light absorption caused by the light scattering of the nanomaterials in an active layer. Some of the metals induce the plasmon light concentration at specific wavelength. Moreover, improved charge transport results in low series resistance.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
• /
• v.24 no.4
• /
• pp.145-150
• /
• 2014

GaN nanorods were grown on the apex of GaN stripes by three dimensional selective growth method. $SiO_2$ mask was partially removed only on the apex area of the GaN stripes by an optimized photolithography for the selective growth. Metallic Au was deposited only on the apex of the GaN stripes and a selective growth of GaN nanorods was followed by a metal organic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE). We confirmed that the shape and size of the GaN nanorods depend on growth temperature and flow rates of group III precursor. GaN nanorods were grown having a taper shape which have sharp tip and triangle-shaped cross section. From the TEM result, we confirmed that threading dislocations were rarely observed in GaN nanorods because of the very small contact area for the selective growth. Stacking faults which might be originated from a difference of the crystal facet directions between the GaN stripe and the GaN nanorods were observed in the center area of the GaN nanorods.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2014.02a
• /
• pp.493-493
• /
• 2014

The manufacturing cost of thin-film photovoltics can potentially be lowered by minimizing the amount of a semiconductor material used to fabricate devices. Thin-film solar cells are typically only a few micrometers thick, whereas crystalline silicon (c-Si) wafer solar cells are $180{\sim}300\mu}m$ thick. As such, thin-film layers do not fully absorb incident light and their energy conversion efficiency is lower compared with that of c-Si wafer solar cells. Therefore, effective light trapping is required to realize commercially viable thin-film cells, particularly for indirect-band-gap semiconductors such as c-Si. An emerging method for light trapping in thin film solar cells is the use of metallic nanostructures that support surface plasmons. Plasmon-enhanced light absorption is shown to increase the cell photocurrent in many types of solar cells, specifically, in c-Si thin-film solar cells and in poly-Si thin film solar cell. By proper engineering of these structures, light can be concentrated and coupled into a thin semiconductor layer to increase light absorption. In many cases, silver (Ag) nanoparticles (NP) are formed either on the front surface or on the rear surface on the cells. In case of poly-Si thin film solar cells, Ag NPs are formed on the rear surface of the cells due to longer wavelengths are not perfectly absorbed in the active layer on the first path. In our cells, shorter wavelengths typically 300~500 nm are also not effectively absorbed. For this reason, a new concept of plasmonic nanostructure which is NPs formed both the front - and the rear - surface is worth testing. In this simulation Al NPs were located onto glass because Al has much lower parasitic absorption than other metal NPs. In case of Ag NP, it features parasitic absorption in the optical frequency range. On the other hand, Al NP, which is non-resonant metal NP, is characterized with a higher density of conduction electrons, resulting in highly negative dielectric permittivity. It makes them more suitable for the forward scattering configuration. In addition to this, Ag NP is located on the rear surface of the cell. Ag NPs showed good performance enhancement when they are located on the rear surface of our cells. In this simulation, Al NPs are located on glass and Ag NP is located on the rear Si surface. The structure for the simulation is shown in figure 1. Figure 2 shows FDTD-simulated absorption graphs of the proposed and reference structures. In the simulation, the front of the cell has Al NPs with 70 nm radius and 12.5% coverage; and the rear of the cell has Ag NPs with 157 nm in radius and 41.5% coverage. Such a structure shows better light absorption in 300~550 nm than that of the reference cell without any NPs and the structure with Ag NP on rear only. Therefore, it can be expected that enhanced light absorption of the structure with Al NP on front at 300~550 nm can contribute to the photocurrent enhancement.