• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.41 no.7
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• pp.493-496
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• 2004

The chemical etching of sapphire substrates was peformed to produce smooth surfaces on an atomic scale. The sapphire sur-face etched by using a $H_2$S $O_4$ solution showed a pit-free morphology and was yen smooth as much as $\sigma$$_{rms}$=0.13 nm, that etched by using a mixture of $H_2$S $O_4$ and $H_3$P $O_4$ contained large pits with $\sigma$$_{rms}$=0.34 nm. The $\sigma$$_{rms}$’s and the number of the pits increased with increasing etching temperature. The sapphire etched by using $H_2$S $O_4$ at 32$0^{\circ}C$ had the best surface. These results provide important information on the effects of etching treatment on the structural properties of sapphire for the growth of high-quality epilayers.ayers.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.1473-1476
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• 2013

Solution-based deposition of $CuIn_xGa_{1-x}Se_2$ (CIGSe) thin films is well known non-vacuum process for the fabrication of CIGSe solar cells. However, due to the usage of organic chemicals in the preparation of CIG precursor solutions, the crystallization of the polycrystalline CIGSe and the performance of CIGSe thin film solar cells were significantly affected by the carbon residues from the organic chemicals. In this work, we have tried to eliminate the carbon residues in the CIG precursor thin films efficiently by using soft-annealing process. By adjusting soft-annealing temperature, it is possible to control the amount of carbon residues in CIG precursor thin films. The reduction of the carbon residues in CIG precursors by high temperature soft-annealing improves the grain size and morphology of polycrystalline CIGSe thin films, which are also closely related with the electrical properties of CIGSe thin film solar cells.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.46 no.6
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• pp.673-678
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• 2009

The effect of MgO buffer layer on the structural properties of sputter-grown ZnO thin film was investigated. Sapphire (0001) and Si (100) substrate were used for the growth and MgO buffer layer was inserted between ZnO thin film and the substrate. X-ray diffraction pattern indicated that enhanced crystallinity in the ZnO thin film grown was achieved by inserting very thin MgO buffer layer, regardless of the substrate type. The strain in the ZnO thin film could also be controlled by the insertion of the MgO buffer layer, and tendency of the strain was strongly dependent on the substrate type.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.74 no.2
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• pp.215-225
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• 2020

Thin films easily wrinkle under compressive loading due to their small bending stiffness resulting from their tiny thickness. For a thin film deposited on a functionally graded substrate with non-uniform stiffness exponentially changes along the length span in this paper, the uniaxial wrinkling problem is solved analytically in terms of hyper-Bessel functions. For infinite, semi-infinite and finite length systems the wrinkling load and wrinkling wavenumber are determined and compared with those in literature. In comparison with a homogeneous substrate-bounded film in which the wrinkling pattern is uniform along the length span, for a functionally graded substrate-film system the wrinkles accumulate around the softer location of the functionally graded substrate. Therefore, the effective length of the film influenced by the wrinkles decreases, the amplitude of the wrinkles on softer regions of the functionally graded substrate grows and the wrinkling load of the functionally graded substrates with higher softening rate decreases more. The results of the current research are expected to be useful in science and technology of thin films and wrinkling of the structures especially living tissues.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.92-92
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• 2012

Chalcopyrite-type Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) is one of the most attractive compound semiconductor materials for thin film solar cells. Among various approaches to prepare the CIGS thin film, the powder process offers an extremely simple and materials-efficient method. Here, we present the mechano-chemical synthesis of CIGS compound powders and their use as an ink material for screen-printing. During the synthesis process, milling time and speed were varied in the range of 10~600 min and 100~300 rpm, respectively. Both phase evolution and powder characteristics were carefully monitored by X-ray diffraction (XRD) method, scanning electron microscope (SEM) observation, and particle size analysis by scanning mobility particle spectrometer (SMPS) and aerodynamic particle sizer (APS). We found the optimal milling condition as 200 rpm for 120 min but also found that a monolithic phase of CIGS powders without severe particle aggregation was difficult to be obtained by the mechano-chemical milling alone. Therefore, the optimized milling condition was combined with an adequate heat-treatment (300oC for 60 min) to provide the monolithic CIGS powder of a single phase with affordable particle characteristics for the preparation of CIGS thin film. The powder was used to prepare an ink for screen printing with which dense CIGS thin films were fabricated under the controlled selenization. The morphology and electrical properties of the thin films were analyzed by SEM images and hall measurement, respectively.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers Conference
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• 2002.10b
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• pp.409-410
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• 2002

In order to measure the oil-film pressure in sliding surface of machinery, we have developed a piezo-resistive type thin-film pressure sensor. To reduce the measurement error due to temperature and strain, the constituent of the pressure sensitive alloy was optimized and a new sensor shape was devised. In this study, we present the measurement results of the oil-film pressure distribution in engine connecting rod big-end bearing and piston pin- bosses with 3 different pin-boss shapes using the newly developed thin-film pressure sensor.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2007.06a
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• pp.50-50
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• 2007

We report the effect of the film thickness on electrical properties of Ti(N) film resistors. The applications of titanium nitride thin film resistor in $\Pi$-type attenuators are also characterized. As film thickness decreases from 100 to 30 nm, temperature coefficient of resistance significantly decreases from -60 to -148 ppm/K, while sheet resistance increases from 37 to $270\;{\Omega}/{\square}$. The characterizations of 20dB-attenuators using thin film resistors are improved in comparison with those using thick film resistors. The $\Pi$-type attenuators using Ti(N) thin film resistors exhibit a attenuation of -19.94 dB and voltage standing wave ratio of 1.16 at a frequency of 2.7 GHz.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.216-221
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• 2006

ZnO thin films prepared by PLD method exhibit an excellent optical property, but may have some problems such as incomplete surface roughness and crystallinity. In this study, undoped ZnO buffer layers were deposited on (0001) sapphire substrates by ultra high vacuum pulse laser deposition (UHV-PLD) and molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) methods, respectively. After post annealing of ZnO buffer layer, undoped ZnO thin films were deposited under different oxygen pressure ($35{\sim}350$ mtorr) conditions. The Arsenic-doped (1, 3 wt%) ZnO thin layers were deposited on the buffer layer of undoped ZnO by UHV-PLD method. The optical property of the ZnO thin films was analyzed by photoluminescence (PL) measurement. The ${\theta}-2{\theta}$ XRD analysis exhibited a strong (002)-peak, which indicates c-axis preferred orientation. Field emission-scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) revealed that microstructures of the ZnO thin films were varied by oxygen partial pressure, Arsenic doping concentration, and deposition method of the undoped ZnO buffer layer. The denser and smoother films were obtained when employing MBE-buffer layer under lower oxygen partial pressure. It was also found that higher Arsenic concentration gave the enhanced growing of columnar structure of the ZnO thin films.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.256-261
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• 2009

Hydrophilic and transparent $TiO_2$ thin film was fabricated by sol-gel method and the properties of contact angle, surface morphology, and transmittance were measured. In addition, surfactant Tween 80 was used for increasing the hydrophilic property of thin film. When the contents of Tween 80 in $TiO_2$ solution was 0, 10, 30, 50wt%, the contact angles of $TiO_2$ thin film were $41.4^{\circ}$, $18.2^{\circ}$, $16.0^{\circ}$, $13.2^{\circ}$, respectively. Fabricated $TiO_2$ thin film showed the photocatalytic property that decomposed methylene blue and decreased the absorbance of solution after UV irradiation. $TiO_2$ thin films fabricated with the solution of 30 wt% Tween 80 were deposited on glass (bare), antimony tin oxide (ATO), fluorine tin oxide (FTO), indium tin oxide (ITO) coated glass substrates, and the contact angle and transmittance of thin film was measured. The contact angles of thin films deposited on four substrates were $16.2\sim27.1^{\circ}$ and was decreased to the range of $13.2\sim17.6^{\circ}$ after UV irradiation, Especially, the thin films coated on ATO and FTO glass substrate showed high transmittance of 74.6% in visible range, respectively, and low transmittance of 54.2% and 40.4% in infrared range, respectively.

• Journal of Magnetics
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.44-49
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• 2000

Computer simulation of sensing current effects on the magnetic and magnetoresistance properties of a crossed spin-valve head is carried out. The spin-valve head has the following layer structure: Ta (8.0 nm)/NiMn (25 nm)/NiFe (2.5 nm)/Cu (3.0 nm)/NiFe (5.5 nm)/Ta (3.0 nm), and it is 1500 nm long and 600 nm wide. Even with a high pinning field of 300 Oe and a high hard-biased field of 50 Oe, the ideal crossed spin-valve structure, which is essential to the symmetry of the output signal and hence high density recording, is not realized mainly due to large interlayer magnetostatic interactions. This problem is solved by applying a suitable magnitude of sensing currents along the length direction generating magnetic fields in the width direction. The ideal spin-valve head is expected to show good symmetry of the output signal. This has not been shown explicitly in the present simulation, however, The reason for this is possibly related to the simple assumption used in this calculation that each magnetic layer consists of a single domain.