• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.28 no.11
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• pp.671-679
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• 2018

Finite element analyses are carried out to understand the piezoelectric behaviors of ZnO nanowires. Three different types of ZnO nanowires, with aspect ratios of 1:2. 1:31, and 1:57, are analyzed for uniaxial compression, pure bending, and buckling. Under the uniaxial compression with a strain of $1.0{\times}10^{-4}$ as the reference state, it is predicted that all three types of nanowires develop the same magnitude of the piezoelectric fields, which suggests that longer nanowires exhibit higher piezoelectric potential. However, this prediction is not in agreement with the experimental results previously reported in the literature. Such discrepancy is understood when the piezoelectric behaviors under bending and buckling are considered. When only the strain field due to bending is present in bending or buckling, the antisymmetric nature of the through-thickness stain distribution indicates that two piezoelectric fields, the same in magnitude and opposite in sign, develop along the thickness direction, which cancels each other out, resulting in a zero net piezoelectric field. Once additional strain contribution due to axial deformation is superposed on the bending, such field cancelling is compensated for due to the axial component of the piezoelectric field. Such numerical predictions seem to explain the reported experimental results while providing a guideline for the design of nanowire-based piezoelectric devices.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.278-283
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• 2014

In this study, we propose an immunosensor using zinc oxide nanorods (NRs) inside PDMS channel for detecting the influenza A virus subtype H7N9. ZnO with high isoelectric point (IEP, ~9.5) makes it suitable for immobilizing proteins with low IEP. In this proposed H7N9 immunosensor structure ZnO NRs were grown on the PDMS channel inner surface to immobilize H7N9 capture antibody. A sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method with was used 3,3',5,5' tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) for detecting H7N9 influenza virus. The immunosensor was evaluated by amperometry at various H7N9 influenza antigen concentrations (1 pg/ml - 1 ng/ml). The redox peak voltage and current were measured by amperometry with ZnO NWs and without ZnO NWs inside PDMS channel. The measurement results of the H7N9 immunosensor showed that oxidation peak current of TMB at 0.25 V logarithmically increased from 2.3 to 3.8 uA as the H7N9 influenza antigen concentration changed from 1 pg/ml to 1 ng/ml. And then we demonstrated that ZnO NRs inside PDMS channel can improve the sensitivity of immunosensor to compare non-ZnO NRs inside PDMS channel.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.114-114
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• 2009

ZnO has received considerable attention due to its potential applicability to optoelectronic devices such as ultraviolet-light emitting diodes (UVLEDs) and laser diodes (LDs). As well known, however, polar ZnO with the growth direction along the c-axis has spontaneous and piezoelectric polarizations that will result in decreased quantum efficiency. Recently, nonpolar ZnO has been studied to avoid such a polarization effect. In order to realize applications of nonpoar ZnO-based films to LEDs, growth of high quality alloys for quantum well structures is one of the important tasks that should be solved. $Mg_xZn_{1-x}O$ and $Cd_xZn_{1-x}O$ is ones of most promising alloys for this application because the alloys of ZnO with MgO and CdO provide a wide range of band-gap engineering spanning from 2.4 to 7.8 eV. In this study, we investigated on $Mg_xZn_{1-x}O$ films grown with various Mg/Zn flux ratios The films were grown on R-plane sapphire substrates by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy (PAMBE). we investigated on $Mg_xZn_{1-x}O$ films grown with various Mg/Zn flux ratios. The films were grown on R-plane sapphire substrates by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy (PAMBE). With the relatively low Mg/Zn flux ratios, a typical striated anisotropic surface morphology which was generally observed from the nonpolar (11-20) ZnO film on r-plane sapphire substrates. By increasing the Mg/Zn flux ratio, however, additional islands were appeared on the surface and finally the surface morphology was entirely changed, which was generally observed for the (0001) polar ZnO films by losing the striated morphology. Investigations by X-ray $\Theta-2{\Theta}$ diffraction revealed that (0002) and (10-11) ZnO planes are appeared in $Mg_xZn_{1-x}O$ films by increasing the Mg/Zn flux ratio. Further detailed investigation by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and photoluminescence (PL) will be discussed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.688-688
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• 2013

Al-doped ZnO (AZO) thin films have attracted a lot of attention as a cheap transparent conducting oxide (TCO) material that can replace the expensive Sn-doped In2O3. In particular, AZO thin films are widely used as a window layer of chalcogenide-based thin film solar cells such as Cu(In,Ga)Se2 and Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS). Mostly important requirements for the window layer material of the thin film solar cells are the high transparency and the low sheet resistance, because they influence the light absorption by the activelayer and the electron collection from the active layer, respectively. In this study, we prepared the AZO thin films by RF magnetron sputtering using a ZnO/Al2O3 (98：2wt%) ceramic target, and the effect of the sputtering condition such as the working pressure, RF power, and the working distance on the optical, electrical, and crystallographic properties of the AZO thin films was investigated. The AZO thin films with optimized properties were used as a window layer of CZTS thin film solar cells. The CZTS active layers were prepared by the electrochemical deposition and the subsequent sulfurization process, which is also one of the cost-effective synthetic approaches. In addition, the solar cell properties of the CZTS thin film solar cells, such as the photocurrent density-voltage (J-V) characteristics and the external quantum efficiency (EQE) were investigated.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.1605-1610
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• 2017

The electrochemical luminescence (ECL) device was investigated, which has similar structure to the dye-sensitized solar cell. The structure of the ECL cell in this experiment reliably induces a large amount of the oxidation around electrodes. The band gap of the ECL electrode is of 3.0 - 3.2 eV. Titanium dioxide ($TiO_2$) nanoparticle has following properties: a band gap of 3.4 eV, a low-priced material, and 002 preferred orientation (Z-axis). Zinc Oxide (ZnO) nanorod is easy to grow in a vertical direction. In this paper, in order to determine material suitable for the ECL device, the properties of various materials for electrodes of ECL devices such as ZnO nanorod (ZnO-NR) and $TiO_2$ nanoparticle ($TiO_2-NP$) were compared. The threshold voltage of the light emission of the ZnO-NR was 2.0 V which is lower than 2.5 V of $TiO_2-NP$. In the other hand, the luminance of $TiO_2-NP$ was $44.66cd/m^2$ and was higher than that of $34cd/m^2$ of ZnO-NR at the same applied voltage of 4 V. Based on the experimental results, we could conclude that $TiO_2-NP$ is a more suitable electrode material in ECL device than the ZnO-NR.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.31 no.8
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• pp.2170-2174
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• 2010

The surfaces of $TiO_2$ and ZnO nanoparticles have been modified by gold (Au) nanoparticles by a reduction method in solution. Their interfacial electronic structures and optical absorptions have been studied by depth-profiling X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and UV-vis absorption spectroscopy, respectively. Upon Au-modification, UV-vis absorption spectra reveal a broad surface plasmon peak at around 500 nm. For the as-prepared Au-modified $TiO_2$ and ZnO, the Au $4f_{7/2}$ XPS peaks exhibit at 83.7 and 83.9 eV, respectively. These are due to a charge transfer effect from the metal oxide support to the Au. For $TiO_2$, the larger binding energy shift from that (84.0 eV) of bulk Au could indicate that Au-modification site of $TiO_2$ is different from that of ZnO. On the basis of the XPS data with sputtering depth, we conclude that cationic (1+ and 3+) Au species, plausibly $Au(OH)_x$ (x = 1-3), commonly form mainly at the Au-$TiO_2$ and Au-ZnO interfaces. With $Ar^+$ ion sputtering, the oxidation state of Ti dramatically changes from 4+ to 3+ and 2+ while that (2+) of Zn shows no discernible change based on the binding energy position and the full-width at half maximum (FWHM).

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.24 no.9
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• pp.693-696
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• 2011

Recently, amorphous oxide semiconductors (AOSs) based thin-film transistors (TFTs) have received considerable attention for application in the next generation displays industry. The research trends of AOSs based TFTs investigation have focused on the high device performance. The electrical properties of the TFTs are influenced by trap density. In particular, the threshold voltage ($V_{th}$) and subthreshold swing (SS) essentially depend on the semiconductor/gate-insulator interface trap. In this article, we investigated the effects of Ar plasma-treated $SiO_2$ insulator on the interfacial property and the device performances of amorphous indium gallium zinc oxide (a-IGZO) TFTs. We report on the improvement in interfacial characteristics between a-IGZO channel layer and gate insulator depending on Ar power in plasma process, since the change of treatment power could result in different plasma damage on the interface.

• 한국정보디스플레이학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.10a
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• pp.993-994
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• 2008

Electrochromic (EC) devices are capable of reversibly changing their optical properties upon charge injection and extraction induced by the external voltage. The characteristics of the EC device, such as low power consumption, high coloration efficiency, and memory effects under open circuit status, make them suitable for use in a variety of applications including smart windows and electronic papers. Coloration due to reduction or oxidation of redox chromophores can be used for EC devices (e-paper), but the switching time is slow (second level). Recently, with increasing demand for the low cost, lightweight flat panel display with paper-like readability (electronic paper), an EC display technology based on dye-modified $TiO_2$ nanoparticle electrode was developed. A well known organic dye molecule, viologen, was adsorbed on the surface of a mesoporous $TiO_2$ nanoparticle film to form the EC electrode. On the other hand, ZnO is a wide bandgap II-VI semiconductor which has been applied in many fields such as UV lasers, field effect transistors and transparent conductors. The bandgap of the bulk ZnO is about 3.37 eV, which is close to that of the $TiO_2$ (3.4 eV). As a traditional transparent conductor, ZnO has excellent electron transport properties, even in ZnO nanoparticle films. In the past few years, one-dimension (1D) nanostructures of ZnO have attracted extensive research interest. In particular, 1D ZnO nanowires renders much better electron transportation capability by providing a direct conduction path for electron transport and greatly reducing the number of grain boundaries. These unique advantages make ZnO nanowires a promising matrix electrode for EC dye molecule loading. ZnO nanowires grow vertically from the substrate and form a dense array (Fig. 1). The ZnO nanowires show regular hexagonal cross section and the average diameter of the ZnO nanowires is about 100 nm. The cross-section image of the ZnO nanowires array (Fig. 1) indicates that the length of the ZnO nanowires is about $6\;{\mu}m$. From one on/off cycle of the ZnO EC cell (Fig. 2). We can see that, the switching time of a ZnO nanowire electrode EC cell with an active area of $1\;{\times}\;1\;cm^2$ is 170 ms and 142 ms for coloration and bleaching, respectively. The coloration and bleaching time is faster compared to the $TiO_2$ mesoporous EC devices with both coloration and bleaching time of about 250 ms for a device with an active area of $2.5\;cm^2$. With further optimization, it is possible that the response time can reach ten(s) of millisecond, i.e. capable of displaying video. Fig. 3 shows a prototype with two different transmittance states. It can be seen that good contrast was obtained. The retention was at least a few hours for these prototypes. Being an oxide, ZnO is oxidation resistant, i.e. it is more durable for field emission cathode. ZnO nanotetropods were also applied to realize the first prototype triode field emission device, making use of scattered surface-conduction electrons for field emission (Fig. 4). The device has a high efficiency (field emitted electron to total electron ratio) of about 60%. With this high efficiency, we were able to fabricate some prototype displays (Fig. 5 showing some alphanumerical symbols). ZnO tetrapods have four legs, which guarantees that there is one leg always pointing upward, even using screen printing method to fabricate the cathode.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.11a
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• pp.42.2-42.2
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• 2010

Transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) are of significant importance for their applications in various devices, such as light-emitting diodes, thin-film solar cells, organic light-emitting diodes, liquid crystal displays, and so on. In order for TCOs to contribute to the performance improvement of these devices, TCOs should have high transmittance and good electrical properties simultaneously. Sn-doped $In_2O_3$ (ITO) is the most commonly used TCO. However, indium is toxic and scarce in nature. Thus, ZnO has attracted a lot of attention because of the possibility for replacing ITO. In particular, group III impurity-doped ZnO showed the optoelectronic properties comparable to those of ITO electrodes. Al-doped ZnO exhibited the best performance among various doped ZnO films because of the high substitutional doping efficiency. However, in order for the Al-doped ZnO to replace ITO in electronic devices, their electrical and optical properties should further significantly be improved. In this connection, different ways such as a variation of deposition conditions, different deposition techniques, and post-deposition annealing processes have been investigated so far. Among the deposition methods, RF magnetron sputtering has been extensively used because of the easiness in controlling deposition parameters and its fast deposition rate. In addition, when combined with post-deposition annealing in a reducing ambient, the optoelectronic properties of Al-doped ZnO films were found to be further improved. In this presentation, we deposited Al-doped ZnO (ZnO:$Al_2O_3$ = 98:2 wt%) thin films on the glass and sapphire substrates using RF magnetron sputtering as a function of substrate temperature. In addition, the ZnO samples were annealed in different conditions, e.g., rapid thermal annealing (RTA) at $900^{\circ}C$ in $N_2$ ambient for 1 min, tube-furnace annealing at $500^{\circ}C$ in $N_2:H_2$=9:1 gas flow for 1 hour, or RTA combined with tube-furnace annealing. It is found that the mobilities and carrier concentrations of the samples are dependent on growth temperature followed by one of three subsequent post-deposition annealing conditions.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.308-311
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• 2015

V₂O₅/Mn₃O₄/Nb₂O₅ codoped zinc oxide varistor ceramics were sintered at a temperature range as low as 875~950℃. The voltage clamping characteristics of V₂O₅/Mn₃O₄/Nb₂O₅ codoped zinc oxide varistor ceramics were investigated at a pulse current range of 1~50 A. The sintering temperature had a significant effect on clamp voltage ratio, which exhibits surge protection capabilities. The varistor ceramics sintered at 875℃ exhibited the best clamping characteristics, in which the clamp voltage ratio was 2.69 at a pulse current of 50 A. The varistor ceramics sintered at 900℃ exhibited the highest electrical stability, where = 3,824 V/cm (initial 3,909 V/cm), and E_{1 mA/cm²} = 27 (initial 39) after application of a pulse current of 100 A.