• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2010.05a
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• pp.27.2-27.2
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• 2010

In recent years, there is a strong requirement of low cost, stable microelectro mechanical systems (MEMS) for resonators, microswitches and sensors. Most of these devices consist of freely suspended microcantilevers, which are usually made by the etching of some sacrificial materials. Herein, we have attempted to use Si nanowires, inherited from the parent Si wafer, as a sacrificial material due to its porosity, low cost and ease of fabrication. Prior to the fabrication of the Si nanowires silver nanoparticles were continuously formed on the surface of Si wafer. Vertically aligned Si nanowires were fabricated from the parent Si wafers by aqueous chemical route at $50^{\circ}C$. Afterwards, the morphological and structural characteristics of the Si nanowires were investigated. The morphology of nanowires was strongly modulated by the resistivity of the parent wafer. The 3-step etching of nanowires in diluted KOH solution was carried out at room temperature in order to control the fast etching. A layer of $Si_3N_4$ (300 nm) was used for the selective fabrication of nanowires. Finally, a freely suspended bridge of zinc oxide (ZnO) was fabricated after the removal of nanowires from the parent wafer. At present, we believe that this technique may provide a platform for the inexpensive fabrication of futuristic MEMS.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.32 no.9
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• pp.3405-3410
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• 2011

We have investigated the cytotoxic potential of tellurium (Te) nanowires in BALB/3T3 fibroblast cells. Te nanowires were synthesized through an aqueous phase surfactant assisted method. Toxicological experiments, such as analysis of morphological changes, MTT assay, DAPI staining, and estimation of intracellular reactive oxygen species, were carried out to reveal the cytotoxic effects of Te nanowires. Te nanowires were found to be cytotoxic at all concentrations tested, in a dose-dependent manner. The UV/Vis spectra of Te nanowires suspended in a culture medium showed drastic changes and disappearance of two broad absorption peaks. The physicochemical properties such as, surface charge, size, and shape of Te nanowires were found to be altered during exposure of cells, due to the instability and agglomeration of nanowires in the culture medium. These results suggest that the chemical components of the DMEM medium significantly affect the stability of Te nanowires. In addition, TEM images revealed that necrosis was the basic pattern of cell death, which might stem from the formation of toxic moieties of tellurium, released from nanowire structures, in the bioenvironment. These observations thus suggest that Te nanomaterials may pose potential risks to environmental and human health.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2006.08a
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• pp.198-198
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• 2006

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.396-400
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• 2012

Novel fabrication method of nanobridge array of various materials was proposed using suspended silicon nanowire array as a sacrificial template structure. Nanobridges of various materials can be simply fabricated by direct deposition with thermal evaporation on the top of prefabricated suspended silicon nanobridge arrays, which are used as a sacrificial structure. Since silicon nanowire can be easily removed by selective dry etching, nanobridge arrays of an intended material are finally obtained. In this paper, metal nanobridges of Ti/Au, around 50-200 nm in thickness and width, 5-20 ${\mu}m$ in length were fabricated to prove the advantages of the proposed nanowire or nanobridge fabrication method. The nanobridges of Ti/Au after complete removal of sacrificial silicon nanowire template were well-established and bending of nanobridge caused by the tensile stress was observed after silicon removing. Up to 50 nm and 10 ${\mu}m$ of silicon nanowire in diameter and length respectively was also very useful for nanowire templates.

• Proceedings of the Korea Association of Crystal Growth Conference
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• 2000.06a
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• pp.87-125
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• 2000

A new paradigm of crystal growth was suggested in a charged cluster model, where charged clusters of nanometer size are suspended in the gas phase in most thin film processes and are a major flux for thin film growth. The existence of these hypothetical clusters was experimentally confirmed in the diamond and silicon CVD processes as well as in gold and tungsten evaporation. These results imply new insights as to the low pressure diamond synthesis without hydrogen, epitaxial growth, selective deposition and fabrication of quantum dots, nanometer-sized powders and nanowires or nanotubes. Based on this concept, we produced such quantum dot structures of carbon, silicon, gold and tungsten. Charged clusters land preferably on conducting substrates over on insulating substrates, resulting in selective deposition. if the behavior of selective deposition is properly controlled, charged clusters can make highly anisotropic growth, leading to nanowires or nanotubes.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.39 no.10
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• pp.825-829
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• 2015

Theoretical calculations suggest that the thermoelectric figure of merit (ZT) can be improved by introducing a core-shell heterostructure to a semiconductor nanowire because of the reduced thermal conductivity of the nanowire. To experimentally verify the decrease in thermal conductivity in core-shell nanowires, the thermal conductivity of Ge-SixGe1-x core-shell nanowires grown by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) was measured using suspended microdevices. The silicon composition (Xsi) in the shells was measured to be about 0.65, and the remainder of the germanium in the shells was shown to play a role in decreasing defects originating from the lattice mismatch between the cores and shells. In addition to the standard four-point current- voltage (I-V) measurement, the measurement configuration based on the Wheatstone bridge was attempted to enhance the measurement sensitivity. The measured thermal conductivity values are in the range of 9-13 W/mK at room temperature and are lower by approximately 30 than that of a germanium nanowire with a comparable diameter.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2006.05a
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• pp.465-466
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• 2006

A single-wall carbon nanotube (SWCNT) has been studied as a material of Nano-Eletro-Mechanical-System (NEMS) device together with various nanowires. In order for oscillation of a multi-wall carbon nanotube (MWCNT) or a single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) on plane surface, it needs suspension of a CNT across trench electrodes. So we propose fabrication method of a MWCNT resonator using dielectrophoresis and show successful results of suspeneded MWNT. Thin electrodes with large gaps could not suspend small diameter MWNT but thicker electrodes could. Thin MWNT could be suspended only when the electrode gap was reduced.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.175-179
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• 2010

We investigated the thermal conductivity of individual single-crystalline PbTe nanowires grown by chemical vapor transport method. Suspended MEMS was utilized to precisely measure the thermal conductivity of an individual nanowire. The thermal conductivity of a PbTe nanowire with diameter of 292 nm was measured to be $1.8W/m{\cdot}K$ at 300 K, which is about two thirds of that of bulk PbTe. This result indicates that the thermal conduction through a PbTe nanowire is effectively suppressed by the enhanced phonon boundary scattering. As the diameter of a PbTe nanowire decreases, the corresponding thermal conductivity linearly decreases.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.21 no.8
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• pp.456-460
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• 2011

Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)-fabricated suspended devices were used to measure the in-plane electrical conductivity, Seebeck coefficient, and thermal conductivity of 304 nm and 516 nm thick InGaAlAs films with 0.3% ErAs nanoparticle inclusions by volume. The suspended device allows comprehensive thermoelectric property measurements from a single thin film or nanowire sample. Both thin film samples have identical material compositions and the sole difference is in the sample thickness. The measured Seebeck coefficient, electrical conductivity, and thermal conductivity were all larger in magnitude for the thicker sample. While the relative change in values was dependent on the temperature, the thermal conductivity demonstrated the largest decrease for the thinner sample in the measurement temperature range of 325 K to 425 K. This could be a result of the increased phonon scattering due to the surface defects and included ErAs nanoparticles. Similar to the results from other material systems, the combination of the measured data resulted in higher values of the thermoelectric figure of merit (ZT) for the thinner sample; this result supports the theory that the reduced dimensionality, such as in twodimensional thin films or one-dimensional nanowires, can enhance the thermoelectric figure of merit compared with bulk threedimensional materials. The results strengthen and provide a possible direction in locating and optimizing thermoelectric materials for energy applications.