• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.370-370
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• 2012

Feature size of Cu interconnects keep shrinking into several tens of nanometer level. For this reason, the Cu interconnects face challenging issues such as increase of electro-migration, line-width dependent electrical resistivity increase, and gap-filling difficulty in high aspect ratio structures. As the thickness of the Cu film decreases below 30 nm, the electrical resistivity is not any more constant, but rather exponential. Research on alloying with other elements have been started to inhibit such escalation in the electrical resistivity. A faint trace of Al added in Cu film by sputtering was reported to contribute to suppression of the increase of the electrical resistivity. From an industrial point of view, we introduced cyclic metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) in order to control Al concentration in the Cu film more easily by controlling the delivery time ratio of Cu and Al precursors. The amount of alloying element could be lowered at level of below 1 at%. Process of the alloy formation was applied into gap-filling to evaluate the performance of the gap-filling. Voidless gap-filling even into high aspect ratio trenches was achieved. In-depth analysis will be discussed in detail.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.08a
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• pp.211-211
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• 2011

Nanostructures, with a diversity of shapes, built on substrates have been developed within many research areas. Lithography is one powerful, but complex, technique to make structures at the nanometer scale, such as platinum nanowires for studying CO catalytic reactions [1], or aluminum nanodisks for studying the plasmon effect [2]. In this work, we approach a facile method to construct nanostructures using noble metals on a titania thin film by using self-assembled structures as a pattern. Here, a large-scale silica monolayer is transferred to the titania thin film substrates using a Langmuir-Blodgett trough, followed by the deposition of a thin transition metal layer. Owing to the hexagonal close-packed structure of the silica monolayer, we would obtain a metal nanostructure that includes separated metallic triangles (islands) after removing the patterning silica beads. This nanostructure can be employed to investigate the role of metal-oxide interfaces in CO catalytic reactions by changing the patterning silica particles with different sizes or by replacing the oxide support. The morphology and chemical composition of the structure can be characterized by scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. In addition, we modify these islands to a connected island structure by reducing the silica size of the patterning monolayer, which is utilized to generating hot electron flow based on the localized surface plasmon resonance effect of the metal nanostructures.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.08a
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• pp.282-282
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• 2011

Low power consuming operation of phase-change random access memory (PRAM) can be achieved by confining the switching volume of phase change media into nanometer scale. Ge2Sb2Te5 (GST) is one of the best materials for the phase change random access memory (PRAM) because the GST has two stable states, namely, high and low resistance values, which correspond to the amorphous and crystalline phases of GST, respectively. However, achieving the fast operation speed at lower current requires an alternative chalcogenide material to replace the GST and shrinking the dimension of programmable volume. In this paper, we have fabricated nanoscale contact area on Ge2Sb2Te5 thin films with trimming process. The GST material was fabricated by melt quenching method and the GST thin films were deposited with thickness of 100 nm by the electron beam evaporation system. As a result, the reset current can be safely scaled down by reducing the device contact area and we could confirmed the phase-change characteristics by applying voltage pulses.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.22 no.8
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• pp.397-402
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• 2012

Morphological control on hydroxyapatite crystals has attractive prospects in research to clarify the effects of crystal planes on biological performance. Hydrothermal processing is known as a typical type of processing for fabricating well-grown crystals with unique morphology. The purpose of the present study is to examine the feasibility of well-crystallized crystals with oriented structures through hydrothermal treatment of calcite. A single crystal of calcite was applied to hydrothermal treatment in a phosphate solution at $160^{\circ}C$. Rod-shaped hydroxyapatite crystals with micrometer-size were formed on the {100} face of calcite after treatment, while nanometer-sized hydroxyapatite crystals were formed on the (111). The hydroxyapatite crystals formed on each plane were not morphologically changed with increasing treatment periods. An oriented structure of rod-shaped hydroxyapatite was constructed after hydrothermal treatment of {100} planes on the calcite single, while such orientation was not observed on the (111) plane after the treatment. The layer of hydroxyapatite formed on the {100} plane was thicker than that of the (111) plane. The {100} plane of calcite shows a higher reactivity than that of the (111) plane, which results in rapid crystal growth of hydroxyapatite. The difference in the morphology of the formed hydroxyapatite was governed by the reactivity of each crystal plane exposed to the surrounding solution.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.218-224
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• 2001

Yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) films were deposited with varying temperatures of ZrCl$_4$between 250~55$0^{\circ}C$ with YCl$_3$and the substrate at 100$0^{\circ}C$. Nanoamperes per square centimeter of the electric current were measured in the reactor during deposition and the current increased with increasing evaporation temperature of ZrCl$_4$. The zirconia nanometer size clusters were captured on the grid membrane near the substrate during the CVD process and observed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The deposition rate decreased with increasing evaporation temperature of ZrCl$_4$. A cauliflower-shaped structure was developed at 25$0^{\circ}C$ then gradually changed to a faceted-grain structure above 35$0^{\circ}C$. Dependence of the growth rate and the morphological evolution on the evaporation temperature of ZrCl$_4$was approached by the charged cluster model.

• Carbon letters
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.1-14
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• 2014

Carbon nanofibers (CNFs) with diameters in the submicron and nanometer range exhibit high specific surface area, hierarchically porous structure, flexibility, and super strength which allow them to be used in the electrode materials of energy storage devices, and as hybrid-type filler in carbon fiber reinforced plastics and bone tissue scaffold. Unlike catalytic synthesis and other methods, electrospinning of various polymeric precursors followed by stabilization and carbonization has become a straightforward and convenient way to fabricate continuous CNFs. This paper is a comprehensive and brief review on the latest advances made in the development of electrospun CNFs with major focus on the promising applications accomplished by appropriately regulating the microstructural, mechanical, and electrical properties of as-spun CNFs. Additionally, the article describes the various strategies to make a variety of carbon CNFs for energy conversion and storage, catalysis, sensor, adsorption/separation, and biomedical applications. It is envisioned that electrospun CNFs will be the key materials of green science and technology through close collaborations with carbon fibers and carbon nanotubes.

• Macromolecular Research
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.101-106
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• 2006

The transport of reactant gas, electrons and protons at the three phase interfaces in the catalytic layers of membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs) in proton exchange, membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) must be optimized to provide efficient transport to and from the electrochemical reactions in the solid polymer electrolyte. The aim of reducing proton transport loss in the catalytic layer by increasing the volume of the conducting medium can be achieved by filling the voids in the layer with small-sized electrolytes, such as dendrimers. Generation 1.5 and 3.5 polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimer electrolytes are well-controlled, nanometer-sized materials with many peripheral ionic exchange, -COOH groups and were used for this purpose in this study. The electrochemically active surface area of the deposited catalyst material was also investigated using cyclic voltammetry, and by analyzing the Pt-H oxidation peak. The performances of the fuel cells with added PAMAM dendrimers were found to be comparable to that of a fuel cell using MEA, although the Pt utilization was reduced by the adsorption of the dendrimers to the catalytic layer.

• Korean Journal of Optics and Photonics
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.530-536
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• 2002

The accurate measurements of thermal expansion coefficients is one of the most important techniques required not only in material science but also in industries. A high precision interferometric dilatometer, using acoustic optical modulator, has been constructed and its performance has been tested. The system consists of a double-path optical heterodyne interferometer and a radiant heating furnace. This provides highly accurate length measurement, and allows rapid heating and cooling method for the specimen. A three longitudinal mode frequency stabilized He-Ne laser, using the secondary beat frequency, is constructed. Its stability is found to be $5{\times}10^{-9}$. The uncertainty in the length measurement is estimated to be of nanometer order in the range between room temperature to 1100 K.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.37-42
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• 2012

Nanoimprint lithography (NIL) has attracted broad interest as a low cost method to define nanometer scale patterns in recent years. A major disadvantage of thermal NIL is the thermal cycle, that is, heating over glass transition temperature and then cooling below it, which requires a significant amount of processing time and limits the throughput. One of the methods to overcome this disadvantage is to improve the cooling performance in NIL process. In this paper, the performance of the cooling system of thermal NIL is numerically investigated by SolidWorks Flow Simulation program. The calculated temperatures of nanoimprint device were verified by the measurements. By using the analysis model, the effects of the change of flow velocity and cooler location on the cooling performance are investigated. For the 6 cases (0.1 m/s, 0.5 m/s, 1 m/s, 3 m/s, 5 m/s, 10 m/s) of flow velocity and for the 6 cases of distances (50 mm, 40 mm, 30 mm, 20 mm, 10 mm, 1 mm) of cooler location, the heat conjugated flow analyses are performed and discussed.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.580-586
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• 2002

We investigated the effect of ionic component on crystalline morphology development during isothermal annealing in a sodium neutralized sulfonated poly(ethylene terephthalate) ionomer (Ion-PET) by time-resolved small-angle x-ray scattering (TR-SAX S) using synchrotron radiation. At early stage in Ion-PET, SAXS intensity at a low annealing temperature (Ta = 120 $^{\circ}C)$ decreased monotonously with scattering angle for a while. Then SAXS profile showed a peak and the peak position progressively moved to wider angles with isothermal annealing time. Finally, the peak intensity decreased, shifting the peak angle to wider angle. It is revealed that ionic aggregates (multiplets structure) of several nm, calculated by Debye-Bueche plot, are formed at early stage. They seem to accelerate the crystallization rate and make fine crystallites without spherulite formation (supported by optical microscopy observation). From decrease of peak intensity in SAXS,it is suggested that new lamellae are inserted between the preformed lamellae so that the concentration of ionic multiplets in amorphous region decreases to lower the electron density difference between lamellar crystal and amorphous region. In addition, analysis on the annealing at a high temperature (Ta = 210 $^{\circ}C)$ by optical microscopy, light scattering and transmission electron microscopy shows a formation of spherulite, no ionic aggregates, the retarded crystallization rate and a high level of lamellar orientation.