• 한국진공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국진공학회 2009년도 제38회 동계학술대회 초록집
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• pp.454-454
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• 2010

In order to achieve a high efficient a-Si solar cell, the TCO (transparent conductive oxide) substrates are required to be a low sheet resistivity, a high transparency, and a textured surface with light trapping effect. Recently, a zinc oxide (ZnO) thin film attracts our attention as new coating material having a good transparent and conductive for TCO of solar cells. In this paper the optical properties of $H_2$ post-treated BZO (boron doped ZnO, ZnO:B) thin film are investigated with $O_2$-plasma treatment. The BZO thin films by MOCVD (Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition) are investigated and the samples of $H_2$ post-treated BZO thin film are tested with $O_2$-plasma treatment by plasma treatment system with 13.56 MHz as RIE (Reactive Ion Etching) type. We measured the optical properties and surface morphology of BZO thin film with and without $O_2$-plasma treatment. The optical properties such as transmittance, reflectance and haze are measured with integrating sphere and ellipsometer. This result of the BZO thin film with and without $O_2$-plasma treatment is application to the TCO for solar cells.

• 한국표면공학회지
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• 제51권6호
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• pp.393-399
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• 2018

Formation behavior of aluminum anodic oxide (AAO) films on Al6061 alloy was studied in view of thickness, morphology and defects in the anodic films in 20 vol.% sulfuric acid solution at a constant current density of $40mA/cm^2$, using voltage-time curve, observation of anodized specimen colors and surface and cross-sectional morphologies of anodic films with anodization time. With increasing anodizing time, voltage for film formation increased exponentially after about 12 min and its increasing rate decreased after 25 min, followed by a rapid decrease of the voltage after about 28 min. Surface color of anodized specimen became darker with increasing anodizing time up to about 20 min, while it appeared to be brighter with increasing anodizing time after 20 min. The darkened and brightened surfaces with anodizing time are attributed to an increase in thickness of porous anodic oxide film and a chemical damage of the films due to heat generated by increased resistance of the film, respectively. Cross-sectional observation of AAO films revealed the formation of defects of crack shape at the metal/oxide interface after 15 min which prevents the growth of AAO films. Width and length of the crack-like defect increased with anodizing time up to 25 min of anodizing, and finally the outer part of AAO films was partly dissolved or detached after 30 min of anodizing, resulting in non-uniform surface structures of the AAO films.

• 한국재료학회지
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• 제17권1호
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• pp.6-10
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• 2007

In the present study, we investigated the formation of self-organized nanostructure oxide layers on CP Ti and Ti-10Ta-10Nb alloy in an electrolyte of 1M phosphoric acid and 1.5 wt% Hydrofluoric acid. The morphology of oxide film on substrate was observed using scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy The surface roughness of titanium oxide film was analyzed by atomic force microscopy and the crystalline of specimen was investigated using X-ray diffractometer. The results of this study showed that well-aligned titanium oxide nanotubes are formed with diameter of approx. 100nm and length of approx. 500nm with CP Ti. However, it is clear that TiTaNb alloy highly irregular structure with various diameters. Transmission electron microscope investigations show that the specimens were confirmed as amorphous. Such titanium oxide nanotubes are expected a well-adhered bioacitive surface layer on titanium substrate for orthopedics and dental implants.

• 한국재료학회지
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• 제34권1호
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• pp.55-62
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• 2024

Fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) has been used as a representative transparent conductive oxide (TCO) in various optoelectronic applications, including light emitting diodes, solar cells, photo-detectors, and electrochromic devices. The FTO plays an important role in providing electron transfer between active layers and external circuits while maintaining high transmittance in the devices. Herein, we report the effects of substrate rotation speed on the electrical and optical properties of FTO films during ultrasonic spray pyrolysis deposition (USPD). The substrate rotation speeds were adjusted to 2, 6, 10, and 14 rpm. As the substrate rotation speed increased from 2 to 14 rpm, the FTO films exhibited different film morphologies, including crystallite size, surface roughness, crystal texture, and film thickness. This FTO film engineering can be attributed to the variable nucleation and growth behaviors of FTO crystallites according to substrate rotation speeds during USPD. Among the FTO films with different substrate rotation speeds, the FTO film fabricated at 6 rpm showed the best optimized TCO characteristics when considering both electrical (sheet resistance of 13.73 Ω/□) and optical (average transmittance of 86.76 % at 400~700 nm) properties with a figure of merit (0.018 Ω^-1).

• 한국진공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국진공학회 2015년도 제49회 하계 정기학술대회 초록집
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• pp.236.1-236.1
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• 2015

The surface morphology of front transparent conductive oxide (TCO) films is very important to achieve high current density in amorphous silicon (a-Si) thin film solar cells since it can scatter the light in a better way. In this study, we present the low cost hydrothermal deposited uniform zinc oxide (ZnO) nano-flower structure with various aspect ratios for a-Si thin film solar cells. The ZnO nano-flower structures with various aspect ratios were grown on the RF magnetron sputtered AZO films. The diameters and length of the ZnO nano-flowers was controlled by varying the annealing time. The length of ZnO nano-flowers were varied from 400 nm to $2{\mu}m$ while diameter was kept higher than 200 nm to obtain different aspect ratios. The ZnO nano-flowers with higher surface area as compared to conventional ZnO nano structure are preferred for the better light scattering. The conductivity and crystallinity of ZnO nano-flowers can be enhanced by annealing in hydrogen atmosphere at 350 oC. The vertical aligned ZnO nano-flowers showed higher haze ratio as compared to the commercially available FTO films. We also observed that the scattering in the longer wavelength region was favored for the high aspect ratio of ZnO nano-flowers. Therefore, we proposed low cost and vertically aligned ZnO nano-flowers for the high performance of thin film solar cells.

• 한국표면공학회지
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• 제43권1호
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• pp.12-16
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• 2010

The morphology of the passivated surface of stainless steel (SS) was quantitatively characterized based on fractal geometry. In particular, the surface irregularities of the passivated 304 and 439 SSs were comparatively analyzed in terms of their self-similar fractal dimensions. The passivated surface of 439 SS in an acid-based electrolyte proved to have a higher fractal dimension, as compared to that of 304 SS, esp. at a scale of several tens of nanometers, strongly indicating the higher irregularity of the passivated surface. It is anticipated that the fractal approach suggested herein might be effectively utilized to analyze the irregularity of the steel surface and/or the compactness of the oxide film.

• 한국재료학회지
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• 제23권9호
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• pp.517-524
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• 2013

The electrical and optical properties of fluorine-doped tin oxide films grown on polyethylene terephthalate film with a hardness of 3 using electron cyclotron resonance plasma with linear microwave of 2.45 GHz of high ionization energy were investigated. Fluorine-doped tin oxide films with a magnetic field of 875 Gauss and the highest resistance uniformity were obtained. In particular, the magnetic field could be controlled by varying the distribution in electron cyclotron deposition positions. The films were deposited at various gas flow rates of hydrogen and carrier gas of an organometallic source. The surface morphology, electrical resistivity, transmittance, and color in the visible range of the deposited film were examined using SEM, a four-point probe instrument, and a spectrophotometer. The electromagnetic field for electron cyclotron resonance condition was uniformly formed in at a position 16 cm from the center along the Z-axis. The plasma spatial distribution of magnetic current on the roll substrate surface in the film was considerably affected by the electron cyclotron systems. The relative resistance uniformity of electrical properties was obtained in film prepared with a magnetic field in the current range of 180~200A. SEM images showing the surface morphologies of a film deposited on PET with a width of 50 cm revealed that the grains were uniformly distributed with sizes in the range of 2~7 nm. In our experimental range, the electrical resistivity of film was able to observe from $1.0{\times}10^{-2}$ to $1.0{\times}10^{-1}{\Omega}cm$ where optical transmittance at 550 nm was 87~89 %. These properties were depended on the flow rate of the gas, hydrogen and carrier gas of the organometallic source, respectively.

• 한국전기전자재료학회논문지
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• 제11권8호
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• pp.601-606
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• 1998

ZnO thin film had been deposited on the glass by sputtering method, and the electrical and structural properties were investigated. When the rf power was 180W and sputtering was 10 m Torr at room temperature, Al-doped ZnO thin film had the lowest resistivity(1$\times10^{-4}\Omega\cdot{cm}$) and then carrier concentration and Hall mobility were $6.27\times10^{20} cm^{-3} and 22.04 cm^2/V\cdot$s, respectively. The undoped ZnO thin film had about 10$\times10^{14}\Omega\cdot cm$ resistivity when oxygen content was 10% or more at room temperature. When the oxygen content was 50% and below and sputtering pressure was 1.0$\times$1.0 \ulcorner Torr, the surface morphology of thin film observed by SEM was overall uniform.

• 열처리공학회지
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• 제14권5호
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• pp.292-296
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• 2001

In this work, an ultra-high vacuum activated reactive evaporation equipment was built. With reaction of Al and oxygen plasma, $Al_2O_3$ was deposited on the surface of etched Al foil. The chamber was evacuated down to $2{\times}10^{-7}$ torr initially. The Ar and $O_2$ gas introduced into the chamber to maintain $5{\times}10^{-5}$ torr during deposition. Ar gas prevents recombining of the ionized oxygen. Evaporation was maintained by electron beam evaporator continuously. Heating filament and electrode were used in order to generate plasma. The substrate bias of -300V was introduced to accelerate deposition of evaporated Al atoms. The composition and morphology of deposited $Al_2O_3$ films were analyzed by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy(XPS) and atomic force microscopy (AFM), respectively. The Al oxide was formed on the surface of etched Al foil. According to AFM results, the surface morphology of $Al_2O_3$ film indicates uniform feature. Dielectric characteristic was measured as a function of frequency. Measured withstanding voltage and capacitance were 52V and $24{\mu}F/cm^2$, respectively. The obtained $Al_2O_3$ film shows clean condition without contaminants, which could be adapted to capacitor production.

• 한국진공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국진공학회 2011년도 제40회 동계학술대회 초록집
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• pp.257-257
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• 2011

The amorphous indium-gallium-zinc-oxide (a-IGZO) materials for use in high performance display research fields are strongly investigated due to its good performance, such as high mobility and better transparency. However, the stability of a-IGZO materials is increasingly becoming one of critical issues due to the sub-gap electron trap sites induced by rough interfaces during deposition processing. It is well-known that the threshold voltage shift is related to interface roughness and oxygen vacancy formed by breaking weak chemical bonds. Here, we report the better properties of transparent oxide transistors by reducing the threshold voltage shift with an external rf plasma supported magnetron sputtering system. Mainly, our sputtering method causes the surface of sample to be sleek, so that it prevents the formation of various defects, such as shallow electron trap sites in the interface. External rf power was applied from 0 to 50W during RF sputtering process to enhance the stability of our oxide transistor without having a large voltage shift. To observe the effects of external rf-plasma source on the properties of our devices, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) are carried out to observe surface roughness and morphology of sputtered thin film. In addition, typical electrical properties, such as I-V characteristics are analyzed.