• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.114-121
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• 1997

The transparent conductiong thin films of tin oxides were prepared on pyrex glass substrates by the pulse laser deposition. In the atmospheres of vacuum, O2, and $Sn(CH_3)_4$ a polycrystalline $SnO_2$ target was ablated by Nd-YAG laser beam to deposit thin films on the substrates at room temperature, and as-deposited films were subsequently heat-treated in the air for 2 h at 230, 420 and $610^{\circ}C$, respectively. The characteristics of the thin films were examined by UV-VIS-NIR spectrometry and X-ray diffractometry, and the electrical properties were measured by four-point probe method along with film thickness monitored by the stylus method. It was observed that in the presence of $Sn(CH_3)_4$, $SnO_2$ phases were grown even at room temperature. This suggests that the microplasma producted during the laser ablation plays an important role in the dissociaation of precursor molecules.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.56 no.4
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• pp.233-242
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• 2023

In recent years, energy-management studies in buildings have proven useful for energy savings. Typically, during heating and cooling, the energy from a given building is lost through its windows. Generally, to block the entry of ultraviolet (UV) and infrared (IR) rays, thin films of deposited metals or metal oxides are used, and the blocking of UV and IR rays by these thin films depends on the materials deposited on them. Therefore, by controlling the thicknesses and densities of the thin films, improving the transmittance of visible light and the blocking of heat rays such as UV and IR may be possible. Such improvements can be realized not only by changing the two-dimensional thin films but also by altering the zero-dimensional (0-D) nanostructures deposited on the films. In this study, 0-D nanoparticles were synthesized using a sol -gel procedure. The synthesized nanoparticles were deposited as deep coatings on polymer and glass substrates. Through spectral analysis in the UV-visible (vis) region, thin-film layers of deposited zinc oxide nanoparticles blocked >95 % of UV rays. For high transmittance in the visible-light region and low transmittance in the IR and UV regions, hybrid multiple layers of silica nanoparticles, zinc oxide particles, and fluorine-doped tin oxide nanoparticles were formed on glass and polymer substrates. Spectrophotometry in the UV-vis-near-IR regions revealed that the substrates prevented heat loss well. The glass and polymer substrates achieved transmittance values of 80 % in the visible-light region, 50 % to 60 % in the IR region, and 90 % in the UV region.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.315.1-315.1
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• 2014

The use of cellulose papers has recently attracted much attention in various device applications owing to their natural advantageous properties of earth's abundance, bio-friendly, large-scale production, and flexibility. Conventional metal oxides with novel structures of nanorods, nanospindles, nanowires and nanobelts are being developed for emerging electronic and chemical sensing applications. In this work, both ZnO (n-type) nanorod arrays (NRAs) and CuO (p-type) nanospindles (NSs) were synthesized on cellulose papers and the p-n junction property was investigated using the electrode of indium tin oxide coated polyethylene terephthalate film. To synthesize ZnO and CuO nanostructures on cellulose paper, a simple and facile hydrothermal method was utilized. First, the CuO NSs were synthesized on cellulose paper by a simple soaking process, yielding the well adhered CuO NSs on cellulose paper. After that, the ZnO NRAs were grown on CuO NSs/cellulose paper via a facile hydrothermal route. The as-grown ZnO/CuO NSs on cellulose paper exhibited good crystalline and optical properties. The fabricated p-n junction device showed the I-V characteristics with a rectifying behaviour.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.02a
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• pp.192-192
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• 2010

Transparent Conductive Oxides (TCO) 박막은 지금 까지 산업 전반에 걸쳐 많이 응용되어 사용되어지는 박막 중에 하나이다. 그대표적인 산업은 디스플레이 산업 중 평면디스플레이 산업에서 투명 전극으로 사용하는 LCD 및 터치패널에 사용되는 전극으로 사용되어져 왔다. 현재에는 솔라 셀의 전극 및 기판으로서의 응용이 많이 연구되어지고 있다. 이와 같은, 산업에서 사용되는 투명전극 재료는 낮은 전기적 특성 및 애칭특성이 우수하고 높은 광 투과도를 필요로 하고 있으며, 이러한 특성을 모두 만족하며 가장 우수한 물성을 나타내는 물질이 (Indium Tin Oxide) film이다. 하지만 Indium의 고갈과 희소성에 따른 고가라는 점의 문제로 인해 대체재료로써 부상되고 있는 ZnO의 연구가 활발히 진행되고 있다. 본 연구에서는 투명 전도성 산화물인 ZnO박막과 Al이 도핑된 AZO박막을 저온공정이 가능한 대향 타겟식 스퍼터링 방법(FTS)을 이용하여 산소가스 분압과 Al타겟에 인가되는 Current에 따른 박막의 전기적, 광학적 특성을 파악하여 적용여부에 대해 조사하였다. ZnO박막의 결정성은 유입되는 산소가스의 유량에 따라 증가하며 일정 영역이상에서는 감소하였다. 산소가스 유량이 1.2 sccm일 때 가장 높은 결정성을 얻었다. 또한 산소가스 유량을 1.2 sccm으로 고정시킨 후 Al타겟에 인가되는 Current에 변화를 주었을 때 0.5A에서 가장 낮은 비저항을 얻었다. ZnO박막의 미세구조는 Xray-diffraction method를 이용하여 측정하였고, 산소 분압에 따른 표면조도 분석을 위해 AFM을 사용하였고 Zn와 Oxide bonding의 화학적 분석을 위해 XPS를 이용하여 분석하였다. 또한 전기적 특성은 Hall measurement, 광 투과도는 UV-VIS Spectrometer를 이용하였다.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.335-335
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• 2014

Over the past several years, transparent conducting oxides have been extensively studied in order to replace indium tin oxide (ITO). Here we report on fluorine doped zinc tin oxide (FZTO) films deposited on glass substrates by radio-frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering using a 30 wt% ZnO with 70 wt% SnO2 ceramic targets. The F-doping was carried out by introducing a mixed gas of pure Ar, CF4, and O2 forming gas into the sputtering chamber while sputtering ZTO target. Annealing temperature affects the structural, electrical and optical properties of FZTO thin films. All the as-deposited FZTO films grown at room temperature are found to be amorphous because of the immiscibility of SnO2 and ZnO. Even after the as-deposited FZTO films were annealed from $300{\sim}500^{\circ}C$, there were no significant changes. However, when the sample is annealed temperature up to $600^{\circ}C$, two distinct diffraction peaks appear in XRD spectra at $2{\Theta}=34.0^{\circ}$ and $52.02^{\circ}$, respectively, which correspond to the (101) and (211) planes of rutile phase SnO2. FZTO thin film annealed at $600^{\circ}C$ resulted in decrease of resistivity $5.47{\times}10^{-3}{\Omega}cm$, carrier concentration ~1019 cm-3, mobility~20 cm2 V-1s-1 and increase of optical band gap from 3.41 to 3.60 eV with increasing the annealing temperatures and well explained by Burstein-Moss effect. Change of work function with the annealing temperature was obtained by ultraviolet photoemission spectroscopy. The increase of annealing temperature leads to increase of work function from ${\phi}=3.80eV$ (as-deposited FZTO) to ${\phi}=4.10eV$ ($600^{\circ}C$ annealed FZTO) which are quite smaller than 4.62 eV for Al-ZnO and 4.74 eV for SnO2. Through X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, incorporation of F atoms was found at around the binding energy of 684.28 eV in the as-deposited and annealed FZTO up to 400oC, but can't be observed in the annealed FZTO at 500oC. This result indicates that F atoms in FZTO films are loosely bound or probably located in the interstitial sites instead of substitutional sites and thus easily diffused into the vacuum from the films by thermal annealing. The optical transmittance of FZTO films was higher than 80% in all specimens and 2-3% higher than ZTO films. FZTO is a possible potential transparent conducting oxide (TCO) alternative for application in optoelectronics.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.157-158
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• 2013

Organic solar cell was fabricated using one-pot deposition of a mixture of NiO nanoparticles, P3HT and PCBM. In the presence of NiO, the photovoltaic performance was slightly increased comparing to that of the device without NiO. When $TiO_2$ thin films with a thickness of 2~3 nm was prepared on NiO nanoparticles using atomic layer deposition, the power conversion efficiency was increased by a factor 2.5 with respect to that with bare NiO. Moreover, breakdown voltage of the film consisting of NiO, P3HT, and PCBM on indium tin oxide was increased by more than 1 V in the presence of $TiO_2$-shell on NiO nanoparticles. It is evidenced that S atoms of P3HT can be oxidized on NiO surfaces, and $TiO_2$-shell on NiO nanoparticles. It is evidenced that S atoms of P3HT can be oxidzed on NiO surfaces, and $TiO_2$ shell heavily reduced oxidation of S at oxide/P3HT interfaces. Oxidized S atoms can most likely act as carrier generation sites and recombination centers within the depletion region, decreasing breakdown voltage and performance of organic solar cells. Our result shows that fabrication of various core-shell nanostruecutres of oxides by atomic layer deposition with controlled film thickness can be of potential importance for fabricating highly efficient organic solar cells.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2006.06a
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• pp.450-450
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• 2006

Organic light-emitting diodes (OLED) as pixels for flat panel displays are being actively pursued because of their relatively simple structure, high brightness, and self-emitting nature [1, 2]. The top-emitting diode structure is preferred because of their geometrical advantage allowing high pixel resolution [3]. To enhance the performance of TOLEDs, it is important to deposit transparent top cathode films, such as transparent conducting oxides (TCOs), which have high transparency as well as low resistance. In this work, we report on investigation of the characteristics of an indium tin oxide (ITO) cathode electrode, which was deposited on organic films by using a radio-frequency magnetron sputtering method, for use in top-emitting organic light emitting diodes (TOLED). The cathode electrode composed of a very thin layer of Mg-Ag and an overlaying ITO film. The Mg-Ag reduces the contact resistivity and plasma damage to the underlying organic layer during the ITO sputtering process. Transfer length method (TLM) patterns were defined by the standard shadow mask for measuring specific contact resistances. The spacing between the TLM pads varied from 30 to $75\;{\mu}m$. The electrical properties of ITO as a function of the deposition and annealing conditions were investigated. The surface roughness as a function of the plasma conditions was determined by Atomic Force Microscopes (AFM).

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.151-151
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• 2009

Recently, there has been increasing interest in amorphous oxide semiconductors to find alternative materials for an amorphous silicon or organic semiconductor layer as a channel in thin film transistors(TFTs) for transparent electronic devices owing to their high mobility and low photo-sensitivity. The fabriction of amorphous oxide-based TFTs at room temperature on plastic substrates is a key technology to realize transparent flexible electronics. Amorphous oxides allows for controllable conductivity, which permits it to be used both as a transparent semiconductor or conductor, and so to be used both as active and source/drain layers in TFTs. One of the materials that is being responsible for this revolution in the electronics is indium-zinc-tin oxide(IZTO). Since this is relatively new material, it is important to study the properties of room-temperature deposited IZTO thin films and exploration in a possible integration of the material in flexible TFT devices. In this research, we deposited IZTO thin films on polyethylene naphthalate substrate at room temperature by using magnetron sputtering system and investigated their properties. Furthermore, we revealed the fabrication and characteristics of top-gate-type transparent TFTs with IZTO layers, seen in Fig. 1. The experimental results show that by varying the oxygen flow rate during deposition, it can be prepared the IZTO thin films of two-types; One a conductive film that exhibits a resistivity of $2\times10^{-4}$ ohm${\cdot}$cm; the other, semiconductor film with a resistivity of 9 ohm${\cdot}$cm. The TFT devices with IZTO layers are optically transparent in visible region and operate in enhancement mode. The threshold voltage, field effect mobility, on-off current ratio, and sub-threshold slope of the TFT are -0.5 V, $7.2\;cm^2/Vs$, $\sim10^7$ and 0.2 V/decade, respectively. These results will contribute to applications of select TFT to transparent flexible electronics.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.331-331
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• 2009

Hafnium oxide ($HfO_2$) attracted by one of the potential candidates for the replacement of si-based oxides. For applications of the high-k gate dielectric material, high thermodynamic stability and low interface-trap density are required. Furthermore, the amorphous film structure would be more effective to reduce the leakage current. To search the gate oxide materials, metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitors was fabricated by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) on indium tin oxide (ITO) coated glass with different oxygen pressures (30 and 50 mTorr) at room temperature, and they were deposited by Au/Ti metal as the top electrode patterned by conventional photolithography with an area of $3.14\times10^{-4}\;cm^2$. The results of XRD patterns indicate that all films have amorphous phase. Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) images show that the thickness of the $HfO_2$ films is typical 50 nm, and the grain size of the $HfO_2$ films increases as the oxygen pressure increases. The capacitance and leakage current of films were measured by a Agilent 4284A LCR meter and Keithley 4200 semiconductor parameter analyzer, respectively. Capacitance-voltage characteristics show that the capacitance at 1 MHz are 150 and 58 nF, and leakage current density of films indicate $7.8\times10^{-4}$ and $1.6\times10^{-3}\;A/cm^2$ grown at 30 and 50 mTorr, respectively. The optical properties of the $HfO_2$ films were demonstrated by UV-VIS spectrophotometer (Scinco, S-3100) having the wavelength from 190 to 900 nm. Because films show high transmittance (around 85 %), they are suitable as transparent devices.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2011.10a
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• pp.43.2-43.2
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• 2011

Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) are transparent in the visible and show conductivity comparable to copper, and are environmentally stable. SWCNT films have high flexibility, conductivity and transparency approaching that indium tin oxide (ITO), and can be prepared inexpensively without vacuum equipment. Transparent conducting Films (TCF) of SWCNTs has the potential to replace conventional transparent conducting oxides (TCO, e.g. ITO) in a wide variety of optoelectronic devices, energy conversion and photovoltaic industry. However, the sheet resistance of SWCNT films is still higher than ITO films. A decreased in the resistivity of SWCNT-TCFs would be beneficial for such an application. We fabricated SWCNT sheet with $KAuBr_4$ on PET substrate. Arc-discharge SWCNTs were dispersed in deionized water by adding sodum dodecyl sulfate (SDS) as surfactant and sonicated, followed by the centrifugation. The dispersed SWCNT was spray-coated on PET substrate and dried on a hotplate at $100^{\circ}C$. When the spray process was terminated, the TCF was immersed into deionized water to remove the surfactant and then it was dried on hotplate. The TCF film was then treated with AuBr4-, rinsed with deionized water and dried. The surface morphology of TCF was characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy. The sheet resistance and optical transmission properties of the TCF were measured with a four-point probe method and a UV-visible spectrometry, respectively. $HNO_3$ treated SWCNT films with Au nano-particles have the lowest 61 ${\Omega}$/< sheet resistance in the 80% transmittance. Sheet resistance was decreased due to the increase of the hole concentration at the washed SWCNT surface by p-type doping of $AuBr_4{^-}$.