• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
• /
• v.51 no.4
• /
• pp.231-236
• /
• 2018

We report p-type electrical characteristics of the amorphous $La_2NiO_{4+{\delta}}$ thin films which were sputtered on the glass substrates using an RF sputtering system. As-deposited thin films at room temperature and $300^{\circ}C$ were amorphous in nature. Post-annealing of the thin film samples over $400^{\circ}C$ resulted in the nano-crystallization of the $La_2NiO_{4+{\delta}}$. The electrical properties of the films were much dependent on the oxygen partial pressure, temperature of the post-annealing and sputtering ambient. The as-deposited samples at room temperature show a hole concentration of $7.82{\times}10^{13}cm^{-3}$, and it could be increased as high as $3.51{\times}10^{22}cm^{-3}$ when the films were post-annealed in an oxygen atmosphere at $500^{\circ}C$. Such p-type conductivity behavior of the $La_2NiO_{4+{\delta}}$ films suggests that the amorphous and nano-crystallized $La_2NiO_{4+{\delta}}$ films have potential for the application as p-type semiconductive or conductive materials at low temperatures where material diffusion is limited.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
• /
• v.47 no.9
• /
• pp.591-596
• /
• 2009

$TiN_xO_y/TiN_x$ multi-layer thin films with a high resistance(${\sim}k{\Omega}$) were deposited on $SiO_2/Si$ substrates at room temperature by sputtering. The $TiN_x$ thin films show island and smooth surface morphology in samples prepared by ${\alpha}$ and RF magnetron sputtering, respectively. $TiN_xO_y/TiN_x$ multi-layer in has been developed to control temperature coefficient of resistance(TCR) by the incorporation of $TiN_x$ layer(positive TCR) inserted into $TiN_xO_y$ layers(negative TCR). Electrical and structural properties of sputtered $TiN_xO_y/TiN_x$ multi-layer films were investigated as a function of annealing temperature. In order to achieve a stable high resistivity, multi-layer films were annealed at various temperatures in oxygen ambient. Samples annealed at $700^{\circ}C$ for 1 min exhibited good TCR value of approximately $-54 ppm/^{\circ}C$ and a stable high resistivity around $20k{\Omega}/sq$. with good reversibility.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
• /
• v.37 no.1
• /
• pp.101-105
• /
• 2024

4H-SiC power metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs) have been developed to achieve lower specific-on-resistance (R_on,sp), and the gate oxides have been thermally grown. The poor channel mobility resulting from the high interface trap density (D_it) at the SiO₂/4H-SiC interface significantly affects the higher switching loss of the power device. Therefore, the development of novel fabrication processes to enhance the quality of the SiO₂/4H-SiC interface is required. In this paper, NO post-oxidation annealing (POA) by using the conditions of N₂ diluted NO at a high temperature (1,300℃) is proposed to reduce the high interface trap density resulting from thermal oxidation. The NO POA is carried out in various NO ambient (0, 10, 50, and 100% NO mixed with 100, 90, 50, and 0% of high purity N₂ gas to achieve the optimized condition while maintaining a high temperature (1,300℃). To confirm the optimized condition of the NO POA, measuring capacitance-voltage (C-V) and current-voltage (I-V), and time-of-flight secondary-ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) are employed. It is confirmed that the POA condition of 50% NO at 1,300℃ facilitates the equilibrium state of both the oxidation and nitridation at the SiO₂/4H-SiC interface, thereby reducing the D_it.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
• /
• v.21 no.5
• /
• pp.273-278
• /
• 2012

Over the last decade, the hafnium-based gate dielectric materials have been studied for many application fields. Because these materials had excellent behaviors for suppressing the quantum-mechanical tunneling through the thinner dielectric layer with higher dielectric constant (high-K) than $SiO_2$ gate oxides. Although high-K materials compensated the deterioration of electrical properties for decreasing the thickness of dielectric layer in MOSFET structure, their nano-mechanical properties of $HfO_2$ thin film features were hardly known. Thus, we examined nano-mechanical properties of the Hafnium oxide ($HfO_2$) thin film in order to optimize the gate dielectric layer. The $HfO_2$ thin films were deposited by rf magnetron sputter using hafnium (99.99%) target according to various oxygen gas flows. After deposition, the $HfO_2$ thin films were annealed after annealing at $400^{\circ}C$, $600^{\circ}C$ and $800^{\circ}C$ for 20 min in nitrogen ambient. From the results, the current density of $HfO_2$ thin film for 8 sccm oxygen gas flow became better performance with increasing annealing temperature. The nano-indenter and Weibull distribution were measured by a quantitative calculation of the thin film stress. The $HfO_2$ thin film after annealing at $400^{\circ}C$ had tensile stress. However, the $HfO_2$ thin film with increasing the annealing temperature up to $800^{\circ}C$ had changed compressive stress. This could be due to the nanocrystal of the $HfO_2$ thin film. In particular, the $HfO_2$ thin film after annealing at $400^{\circ}C$ had lower tensile stress, such as 5.35 GPa for the oxygen gas flow of 4 sccm and 5.54 GPa for the oxygen gas flow of 8 sccm. While the $HfO_2$ thin film after annealing at $800^{\circ}C$ had increased the stress value, such as 9.09 GPa for the oxygen gas flow of 4 sccm and 8.17 GPa for the oxygen gas flow of 8 sccm. From these results, the temperature dependence of stress state of $HfO_2$ thin films were understood.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
• /
• v.27 no.11
• /
• pp.631-635
• /
• 2017

We report facile solution processing of mesoporous hematite (${\alpha}-Fe_2O_3$) thin films for high efficiency solar-driven water splitting. $Fe_2O_3$ thin films were prepared on fluorine doped tin oxide(FTO) conducting substrates by spin coating of a precursor solution followed by annealing at $550^{\circ}C$ for 30 min. in air ambient. Specifically, the precursor solution was prepared by dissolving non-toxic $FeCl_3$ as an Fe source in highly versatile dimethyl sulfoxide(DMSO) as a solvent. The as-deposited and annealed thin films were characterized for their morphological, structural and optical properties using field-emission scanning electron microscopy(FE-SEM), X-ray diffraction(XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy(XPS) and UV-Vis absorption spectroscopy. The photoelectrochemical performance of the precursor (${\alpha}-FeOOH$) and annealed (${\alpha}-Fe_2O_3$) films were characterized and it was found that the ${\alpha}-Fe_2O_3$ film exhibited an increased photocurrent density of ${\sim}0.78mA/cm^2$ at 1.23 V vs. RHE, which is about 3.4 times higher than that of the ${\alpha}-FeOOH$ films ($0.23mA/cm^2$ at 1.23 V vs. RHE). The improved performance can be attributed to the improved crystallinity and porosity of ${\alpha}-Fe_2O_3$ thin films after annealing treatment at higher temperatures. Detailed electrical characterization was further carried out to elucidate the enhanced PEC performance of ${\alpha}-Fe_2O_3$ thin films.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
• /
• v.5 no.1
• /
• pp.87-95
• /
• 1995

The effect of stuffing of TiN on the diffusion barrier property between A1 and Si was investigated. The stuffing of TiN was performed by annealing in a Nz ambient at $450^{\circ}C$ for 30min. By TEM analysis, it is identified that there are solid-free or open spaces of a b u t 10-20$\AA$ between the grains of asdeposited TiN. In the case of stuffed TiN, the width of solid-free or open spaces has been reduced to about 10$\AA$ or below. The combination of RBS and AES analyses showed that the asdeposited TiN had about 7at.% of oxygen, and that the stuffed TiN had about 10-15at.% of oxygen. The diffusion barrier test result shows that after annealing at $650^{\circ}C$ for lhour, the asdeposited TiN fails due to the formation of A1 spikes and Si pits in the Si substrate. However, in the case of stuffed TiN, there is no indication of Al spikes and Si pits at the same annealing condition. Thus, it is concluded that this stuffing of TiN significantly improves the diffusion barrier property of TiN between A1 and Si. It is considered that the stuffing effect results from the reduced diffusion through grain boundaries due to the reduced spacing of grain boundaries.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
• /
• v.17 no.1
• /
• pp.23-27
• /
• 2008

We have investigated the effect of annealing on the structural and optical properties of polycrystalline Ga doped ZnO (GZO) films grown on glass substrates by RF-magnetron sputter at room temperature. The structural and optical properties of as-grown GZO films were characterized and then samples were annealed at $400{\sim}600^{\circ}C$ in $N_2$ ambient for 30, 60 minutes, respectively. The field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) were used to measure the grain size and the crystalline quality of the films. We found that the crystalline quality was improved and the grain size tends to be increased. The optical properties of GZO thin films were analyzed by UV-VIS-NIR spectrophotometers. It is found that optical properties of thin films are increased by annealing and can be used for transparent electrode application. We believe that the appropriate post-growth heat treatment could be contributed to the improvement of GZO-based devices.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
• /
• v.9 no.10
• /
• pp.1012-1017
• /
• 1999

Low resistance ohmic contacts to the Si-doped $\textrm{In}_{0.17}\textrm{Ga}_{0.83}\textrm{N}$(~$\times10^{19}\textrm{cm}^{-3}$) were obtained using the W metallization schemes. Specific contact resistance decreased with increasing annealing temperature. The lowest resistance is obtained after a nitrogen ambient annealing at $950^{\circ}C$ for 90 s, which results in a specific contact resistance of $2.75\times10^{-8}\Omega\textrm{cm}^{-3}$. Interfacial reactions and surface are analyzed using x-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The X-ray diffraction results show that the reactions between the W film and the $\textrm{In}_{0.17}\textrm{Ga}_{0.83}\textrm{N}$ produce a $\beta$-$W_2N$ phase at the interface. The SEM result shows that the morphology of the contacts is stable up to a temperature as high as $850^{\circ}C$. Possible mechanisms are proposed to describe the annealing temperature dependence of the specific contact resistance.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
• /
• v.8 no.12
• /
• pp.1182-1189
• /
• 1998

High quality $TiN/TiSi_2$-bilayers were formed on the Si(100) substrate at room temperature and at $600^{\circ}C$ first by coevaporation of stoichiometric Si and Ti(Si:Ti = 2:1) fellowed by Ti reactive deposition in N, gas ambient, and in situ annealing in ultrahigh vacuum. Stoichiometric $Ti_{0.}N_{0.5}$, films with (111) texture and $C54-TiSi_2$ films were grown by annealing at temperatures above $700^{\circ}C$. $TiN/C54-TiSi_2$/Si(100) interface was clear and flat without agglomoration, and $CS4-TiSi_2$ film was epitxailly grown. The sheet resistance of the $TiN/TiSi_2$- bilayer decreased as the annealing temperature increased and about $2.5\omega/\textrm{cm}^2$ was obtained from the sample annealed over $700^{\circ}C$.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
• /
• v.2 no.5
• /
• pp.375-382
• /
• 1992

Molybdenum silicide films have been prepared by sputtering from a single composite MoS$i_2$ source on both P, B$F_2$respectively implanted (5${\times}10^{15}ions/cm^2$ single crystal and P implanted (5${\times}10^{15}ions/cm^2$) polycrystalline silicon substrates followed by rapid thermal annealing in the ambient of argon. The heat treatment temperatures have been varied in the range of 600-l20$0^{\circ}C$ for 20 seconds. The properties of Mo-silicide and the diffusion behaviors of dopant after the heat treatment are investigated using X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy(SEM) , secondary ions mass spectrometry(SIMS), four-point probe and $\alpha-step.$ Annealing at 80$0^{\circ}C$ or higher resulted in conversion of the amorphous phase into predominantly MoS$i_2$and a lower sheet resistance. There was no significant out-diffusion of dopants from both single crystal and polycrystalline silicon substrate into molybdenum silicide layers during annealing.