• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.528-537
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• 2008

60 nm and 20 nm thick hydrogenated amorphous silicon(a-Si:H) layers 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 an e-beam evaporator. Finally, 30 nm-Ni/(60 nm and 20 nm) a-Si:H/200 nm-$SiO_2$/single-Si structures 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 40 sec. 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 from the 60 nm a-Si:H substrate showed low sheet resistance from $400^{\circ}C$ which is compatible for low temperature processing. The nickel silicide from 20 nm a-Si:H substrate showed low resistance from $300^{\circ}C$. Through HRXRD analysis, the phase transformation occurred with silicidation temperature without a-Si:H layer thickness dependence. With the result of FE-SEM and TEM, the nickel silicides from 60 nm a-Si:H substrate showed the microstructure of 60 nm-thick silicide layers with the residual silicon regime, while the ones from 20 nm a-Si:H formed 20 nm-thick uniform silicide layers. In case of SPM, the RMS value of nickel silicide layers increased as the silicidation temperature increased. Especially, the nickel silicide from 20 nm a-Si:H substrate showed the lowest RMS value of 0.75 at $300^{\circ}C$.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.33-38
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• 2021

Recently, rollable and foldable displays are attracting great attention in the flexible display market due to their excellent form factor. To predict and prevent the mechanical failure of the display panels, it is essential to accurately understand the mechanical properties of brittle SiN_x thin films, which have been used as an insulating film in flexible displays. In this study, tensile properties of the ~130 nm- and ~320 nm-thick SiN_x thin films were successfully measured by coating a ~190 nm-thick organic nano-support-layer (PMMA, PS, P3HT) on the fragile SiN_x thin films and stretching the films as a bilayer state. Young's modulus values of the ~130 nm and ~320 nm SiN_x thin films fabricated through the controlled chamber pressure and deposition power (A: 1250 mTorr, 450 W/B: 1000 mTorr, 600 W/C: 750 mTorr, 700 W) were calculated as A: 76.6±3.5, B: 85.8±4.6, C: 117.4±6.5 GPa and A: 100.1±12.9, B: 117.9±9.7, C: 159.6 GPa, respectively. As a result, Young's modulus of ~320 nm SiN_x thin films fabricated through the same deposition condition increased compared to the ~130 nm SiN_x thin films. The tensile testing method using the organic nano-support-layer was effective in the precise measurement of the mechanical properties of the brittle thin films. The method developed in this study can contribute to the robust design of the rollable and foldable displays by enabling quantitative measurement of mechanical properties of fragile thin films for flexible displays.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.59 no.5
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• pp.397-406
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• 2015

ZnO, II-VI group inorganic compound semi-conductor, has been receiving much attention due to its wide applications in various fields. Since the ZnO has 3.37 eV of a wide band gap and 60 meV of big excitation binding energy, it is well-known material for various uses such the optical property, a semi-conductor, magnetism, antibiosis, photocatalyst, etc. When applied in the field of photocatalyst, many research studies have been actively conducted regarding magnetic materials and the core-shell structure to take on the need of recycling used materials. In this paper, magnetic core-shell ZnFe₂O₄@SiO₂ nanoparticles (NPs) have been successfully synthesized through three steps. In order to analyze the structural characteristics of the synthesized substances, X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) were used. The spinel structure of ZnFe₂O₄ and the wurtzite structure of ZnO were confirmed by XRD, and ZnO production rate was confirmed through the analysis of different concentrations of the precursors. The surface change of the synthesized materials was confirmed by SEM. The formation of SiO₂ layer and the synthesis of ZnFe₂O₄@ZnO@SiO₂ NPs were finally verified through the bond of Fe-O, Zn-O and Si-O-Si by FT-IR. The magnetic property of the synthesized materials was analyzed through the vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). The increase and decrease in the magnetism were respectively confirmed by the results of the formed ZnO and SiO₂ layer. The photocatalysis effect of the synthesized ZnFe₂O₄ @ZnO@SiO₂ NPs was experimented in a black box (dark room) using methylene blue (MB) under UV irradiation.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.333-333
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• 2016

현재까지 가장 높은 광전류 변환 효율을 나타내는 III-V 화합물 반도체의 다중접합 태양전지 대신 이보다 단순한 에피구조를 가진 단일셀 이종접합구조의 태양전지를 제안하였다. 이를 한국나노 기술원에서 MOCVD(Metalorganic Vapour Phase Epitaxy) 장비를 이용하여 에피구조를 성장하고 태양 전지를 제작해 그 특성을 조사하였다. 태양 전지는 서로 다른 orientation의 두 GaAs 기판에 각각 동일한 에피 구조로 성장되었다. GaAs 기판은 Si 도핑된 n-type 기판으로 (100) 표면이 <111>A 방향으로 2도 off 된 웨이퍼와 10도 off 된 웨이퍼가 사용되었다. 연구에서 시뮬레이션에 사용된 태양전지의 에피 구조는 맨 위 p-GaAs (p-contact 층), p-InAlP, p-InGaP의 광흡수층과 N-InAlGaP 층과 아래의 n-InAlP와 n-GaAs의 n-contact층으로 이루어져있다.태양전지는 $5mm{\times}5mm$의 면적을 가지고 있다. 그림 1은 전류-전압의 측정된 결과를 나타낸 그래프이다. 태양전지는 1 sun 조건하에서 probe를 이용해 측정되었다. 2도 off GaAs 기판 위에 성장시킨 태양전지에서는 3.7mA의 단락전류값이, 10도$^{\circ}$ off 인 샘플에서는 4.7mA의 단락전류값이 측정되었다. 반면에 전류-전압곡선으로부터 얻은 10도 off 인 태양전지의 직렬 저항값은 2도 off 인 태양전지의 약4배 정도로 나타났다. 이는 기판의 결정방향에 따라 태양전지의 내부 전하 transport에 차이가 있음을 나타낸다. TLM (Transmission Line Model) 방법에 의한 p-contact의 ohmic저항 측정에서도 이와 일치하는 결과를 얻었다.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.67-72
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• 2008

We have studied the effect of heat treatment of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) as a counter electrode on the electro-chemical properties of dye-snsitized solar cells. MWNTs on the p-type Si substrate were synthesized by thermal chemical vapor deposition (CVD) using Fe catalysts. We prepared the two types of MWNTs samples with the different diameters. The rapid thermal annealing (RTA) treatment for the MWNTs was carried out at the growth temperature ($900^{\circ}C$) for 1 minute with $N_2$ gas atmosphere. The structural, electrical and electrochemical properties of MWNTs were investigated by field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), Raman spectroscopy, 2-point probe station and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The I(D)/I(G) ratio of heat-treated MWNTs in Raman spectra was considerably decreased. It was also found that the heat-treated MWNTs showed better redox reaction of iodide at the interface between MWNTs surface and electrolyte than that of as-grown MWNTs. The redox resistance value of heat-treated electrodes was measured to be much lower than that of as-grown electrode at the interface. As a result, the counter electrode using the heat-treated MWNTs showed better electrochemical properties.

• Composites Research
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.226-231
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• 2015

Various characteristics(thermal expansion, microstructure, etc.) and mechanical properties of CNT-aluminum nano composites manufactured by volume production system were evaluated. Also, formability and durability were evaluated for potential applications in automotive parts, via compared with high-elasticity material (A390) and the current commercial product. As a result, this composite has excellent mechanical properties and formability, therefore, to verity its potential for application as light and high strength materials in automobile part.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.296-303
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• 2002

For potential application to quantum mechanical devices, nano-composite thin films, consisting of GaAs quantum dots dispersed in SiO$_2$ glass matrix, were fabricated and studied in terms of structural, chemical, and optical properties. In order to form crystalline GaAs quantum dots at room temperature, uniformly dispersed in $SiO_2$matrix, the composite films were made to consist of alternating layers of GaAs and $SiO_2$in the manner of a superlattice using RF magnetron sputter deposition. Among different film samples, nominal thickness of an individual GaAs layer was varied with a total GaAs volume fraction fixed. From images of High Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy (HRTEM), the formation of GaAs quantum dots on SiO$_2$was shown to depend on GaAs nominal thickness. GaAs deposits were crystalline and GaAs compound-like chemically according to HRTEM and XPS analysis, respectively. From measurement of optical absorbance using a spectrophotometer, absorption edges were determined and compared among composite films of varying GaAs nominal thicknesses. A progressively larger shift of absorption edge was noticed toward a blue wavelength with decreasing GaAs nominal thickness, i.e. quantum dots size. Band gaps of the composite films were also determined from Tauc plots as well as from PL measurements, displaying a linear decrease with increasing GaAs nominal thickness.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.77-81
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• 2020

Commercialization of flexible OLED displays, such as rollable and foldable displays, has attracted tremendous interest in next-generation display markets. However, during bending deformation, cracking and delamination of thin films in the flexible display panels are the critical bottleneck for the commercialization. Therefore, measuring mechanical properties of the fragile thin films in the flexible display panels is essential to prevent mechanical failures of the devices. In this study, tensile properties of the metal and ceramic nano-thin films were quantitatively measured by using a direct tensile testing method on the water surface. Elastic modulus, tensile strength, and elongation of the sputtered Mo, MoTi thin films, and PECVD deposited SiN_x thin films were successfully measured. As a result, the tensile properties were varied depending on the deposition conditions and the film thickness. The measured tensile property values can be applied to stress analysis modeling for mechanically robust flexible displays.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.13 no.11
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• pp.2385-2390
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• 2009

N-doped ZnO thin films with c-axis preferred orientation were prepared on p-Si(100) wafers, using an RF magnetron sputter deposition. For ZnO deposition, $N_2O$ gas was employed as a dopant source and various deposition conditions such as $N_2O$ gas fraction and RF power were applied. The depth pofiles of the nitrogen [N] atoms incorporated into the ZnO thin films were investigated by Auger Electron Spectroscopy(AES) and the nano-scale structural characteristics of the N-doped ZnO thin films were also investigated by a scanning electron microscope (SEM) technique.

• Journal of Adhesion and Interface
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.155-161
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• 2019

Understanding charge transport anisotropy at the interface of conjugated nanostructures basically gives insight into structure-property relationship in organic field-effect transistors (OFET). Here, the anisotropy of the field-effect mobility at the interface between 6,13-bis(triisopropylsilylethynyl) pentacene (TIPS-pentacene) single crystal with cofacial molecular stacks in a-b basal plane and SiO gate dielectric was investigated. A solvent exchange method has been used in order for TIPS-pentacene single crystals to be grown on the surface of SiO₂ thin film, corresponding to the charge accumulation at the interface in OFET structure. In TIPS-pentacene OFET, the anisotropy ratio between the highest and lowest measured mobility is revealed to be 5.2. By analyzing the interaction of a conjugated unit in TIPS-pentacene with the nearest neighbor units, the mobility anisotropy can be rationalized by differences in HOMO-level coupling and hopping routes of charge carriers. The theoretical estimation of anisotropy based on HOMO-level coupling is also consistent with the experimental result.