• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2000.02a
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• pp.100-100
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• 2000

Aluminium oxide (Al2O3) films have been investigated for many applications such as insulating materials, hard coatings, and diffusion barriers due to their attractive electrical and mechanical properties. In recent years, application of Al2O3 films for dielectric materials in integrated circuits as gates and capacitors has attracted much attention. Various deposition techniques such as sol-gel, metalorganic decomposition (MOD), sputtering, evaporation, metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD), and pulsed laser ablation have been used to fabricate Al2O3 thin films. Among these techniques, reactive sputtering has been widely used due to its high deposition rate and easy control of film composition. It has been also reported that the sputtered Al2O3 films exhibit superior chemical stability and mechanical strength compared to the films fabricated by other processes. In this study, Al2O3 thin films were deposited on Pt/Ti/SiO/Si2 and Si substrates by DC reactive sputtering at room temperature with variation of the Ar/O2 ratio in sputtering ambient. Crystalline phase of the reactively sputtered films was characterized using X-ray diffractometry and the surface morphology of the films was observed with Scanning election microscopy. Effects of Th Ar/O2 ratio characteristics of Al2O3 films were investigated with emphasis on the thickness dependence of the dielectric properties. Correlation between the dielectric properties and the microstructure was also studied

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.02a
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• pp.141-141
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• 2010

The effect of thermal anneal on the characteristics of structural properties and the enhancement of luminescence and photovoltaic (PV) characteristics of silicon-rich silicon-nitride films were investigated. By using an ultra high vacuum ion beam sputtering deposition, B-doped silicon-rich silicon-nitride (SRSN) thin films, with excess silicon content of 15 at. %, on P-doped (n-type) Si substrate was fabricated, sputtering a highly B doped Si wafer with a BN chip by N plasma. In order to examine the influence of thermal anneal, films were then annealed at different temperature up to $1100^{\circ}C$ under $N_2$ environment. Raman, X-ray diffraction, and X-ray photoemission spectroscopy did not show any reliable evidence of amorphous or crystalline Si clusters allowing us concluding that nearly no Si nano-cluster could be formed through the precipitation of excess Si from SRSN matrix during thermal anneal. Instead, results of Fourier transform infrared and X-ray photoemission spectroscopy clearly indicated that defective, amorphous Si-N matrix of films was changed to be well-ordered thanks to high temperature anneal. The measurement of spectral ellipsometry in UV-visible range was carried out and we found that the optical absorption edge of film was shifted to higher energy as the anneal temperature increased as the results of thermal anneal induced formation of $Si_3N_4$-like matrix. These are consistent with the observation that higher visible photoluminescence, which is likely due to the presence of Si-N bonds, from anneals at higher temperature. Based on these films, PV cells were fabricated by the formation of front/back metal electrodes. For all cells, typical I-V characteristic of p-n diode junction was observed. We also tried to measure PV properties using a solar-simulator and confirmed successful operation of PV devices. Carrier transport mechanism depending on anneal temperature and the implication of PV cells based on SRSN films were also discussed.

• Journal of Ceramic Processing Research
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.431-435
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• 2019

The thermal annealing effects on the optical transparency and luminescent characteristics of the Eu-doped Y2O3 thin films have been investigated. The as-deposited Y2O3:Eu films exhibited an optical band gap of 5.78 eV with a transparency of 89 % at a wavelength of 550 nm. As the annealing temperature increased from 1000 to 1300 ℃, the optical band gap and transparency of the films decreased from 5.77 to 4.91 eV and from 86.8 to 64.5 % at 550 nm, respectively. The crystalline quality of the films was improved with increasing annealing temperature. The annealed Y2O3:Eu films emitted a red-color photoluminescence (PL) with the highest emission peak near 612 nm. The PL intensity was increased with increasing annealing temperature to 1200 ℃, resulting from the improvement in the crystalline quality of the films. The PL intensity was decreased with further increasing temperature above 1200 ℃ due to the formation of Y2SiO5 phase by the reaction of the film with the quartz substrate.

• The Korean Journal of Ceramics
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.138-142
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• 2000

Thin film $LiNbO_3$MFS (metal-ferroelectric-semiconductor) capacitor showed improved characteristics such as low interface trap density, low interaction with Si substrate, and large remanent polarization. This paper reports ferroelectric $LiNbO_3$thin films grown directly on p-type Si (100) substrates by 13.56 MHz RF magnetron sputtering system for FRAM (ferroelectric random access memory) applications. RTA (rapid thermal anneal) treatment was performed for as-deposited films in an oxygen atmosphere at $600^{\circ}C$ for 60sec. We learned from X-ray diffraction that the RTA treated films were changed from amorphous to poly-crystalline $LiNbO_3$which exhibited (012), (015), (022), and (023) plane. Low temperature film growth and post RTA treatments improved the leakage current of $LiNbO_3$films while keeping other properties almost as same as high substrate temperature grown samples. The leakage current density of $LiNbO_3$films decreased from $10^{-5}$ to $10^{-7}$A/$\textrm{cm}^2$ after RTA treatment. Breakdown electric field of the films exhibited higher than 500 kV/cm. C-V curves showed the clockwise hysteresis which represents ferroelectric switching characteristics. Calculated dielectric constant of thin film $LiNbO_3$illustrated as high as 27.9. From ferroelectric measurement, the remanent polarization and coercive field were achieved as 1.37 $\muC/\textrm{cm}^2$ and 170 kV/cm, respectively.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.191-191
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• 2009

$Bi_4Ti_3O_{12}$ (BiT) thin films were well developed on the Pt/Ti/$SiO_2/Si$ substrate by a metal organic decomposition (MOD) method. Oxygen was effective on the crystallization of the BiT thin films during a rapid thermal annealing process. The electrical properties of the BiT films dependant on the oxygen partial pressure were investigated. No crystalline phase was observed for the BiT film annealed at $700^{\circ}C$ under oxygen free atmosphere. However, its crystallinity was significantly evolutionned with increasing oxygen partial pressure. In addition, its dielectric and piezoelectric properties were enhanced with increasing oxygen partial pressure to 10 torr. Especially, the BiT film, annealed at $700^{\circ}C$ and 10 torr oxygen pressure, showed good dielectric properties: dielectric constant of 51 and dielectric loss of 0.2 % at 100 kHz. Its leakage current and piezoelectric constant ($d_{33}$) was also considerably improved, being as 0.62 nA/$cm^2$ at 1 V and approximately 51 pm/V, respectively.

• The Korean Journal of Ceramics
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.258-261
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• 2000

Highly (h00)-oriented (Ba, Sr)TiO$_3$(BST) thin films were grown by pulsed laser deposition on the perovskite LaNiO$_3$(LNO) metallic oxide layer as a bottom electrode. The LNO films were deposited on SiO$_2$/Si substrates by rf-magnetron sputtering method. The crystalline phases of the BST film were characterized by x-ray $\theta$-2$\theta$, $\omega$-rocking curve and $\psi$-scan diffraction measurements. The surface microsturcture observed by scanning electron microscopy was very dense and smooth. The low-frequency dielectric responses of the BST films grown at various substrate temperatures were measured as a function of frequency in the frequency range from 0.1 Hz to 10 MHz. The BST films have the dielectric constant of 265 at 1 kHz and showed multiple dielectric relaxation at the low frequency region. The origin of these low-frequency dielectric relaxation are attributed to the ionized space charge carriers such as the oxygen vacancies and defects in BST film, the interfacial polarization in the grain boundary region and the electrode polarization. We studied also on the capacitance-voltage characteristics of BST films.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.1 no.4
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• pp.11-15
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• 2000

This paper presents a process optimization of antireflection (AR) coating on crystalline Si solar cells. Theoretical and experimental investigations were performed on a double-layer AR(DLAR) coating of MgFe$_2$/GeO$_2$. We investigated GeO$_2$ films as an AR layer because they have a proper refractive index of 2.46 and demonstrate the same lattice constant as Si substrate. RF sputter grown GeO$_2$ film showed deposition temperature strong dependence. The GeO$_2$ at 400$\^{C}$ exhibited a strong (111) preferred orientation and the lowest surface roughness of 6.87 $\AA$. Refractive index of MgFe$_2$film was measured as 1.386 for the most of growth temperature. An optimized DLAR coating showed a reflectance as low as 2.04% in the wavelengths ranged from 0.4 ㎛ to 1.1 ㎛. Solar cells with a structure of MgFe$_2$/GeO$_2$/Ag/N$\^$+//p-type Si/P$\^$+//Al were investigated with the without DLAR coatings. We achieved the efficiency of solar cells greater than 15% with 3.12% improvement with DLAR coatings. Further details about MgFe$_2$,GeO$_2$ films, and cell fabrication parameters are presented in this paper.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.388-388
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• 2016

Chemical mist deposition (CMD) of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) was investigated with cavitation frequency f, solvent, flow rate of nitrogen, substrate temperature $T_s$, and substrate dc bias $V_s$ as variables for efficient PEDOT:PSS/crystalline (c-)Si heterojunction solar cells (Fig. 1). The high-speed camera and differential mobility analysis characterizations revealed that average size and flux of PEDOT:PSS mist depend on f, solvent, and $V_s$. The size distribution of mist particles including EG/DI water cosolvent is also shown at three different $V_s$ of 0, 1.5, and 5 kV for a f of 3 MHz (Fig. 2). The size distribution of EG/DI water mist without PEDOT:PSS is also shown at the bottom. A peak maximum shifted from 300-350 to 20-30 nm with a narrow band width of ~150 nm for PEDOT:PSS solution, whose maximum number density increased significantly up to 8000/cc with increasing $V_s$. On the other hand, for EG/water cosolvent mist alone, the peak maximum was observed at a 72.3 nm with a number density of ~700/cc and a band width of ~160 nm and it decreased markedly with increasing $V_s$. These findings were not observed for PEDOT:PSS/EG/DI water mist. In addition, the Mie scattering image of PEDOT:PSS mist under white bias light was not observed at $V_s$ above 5 kV, because the average size of mist became smaller. These results imply that most of solvent is solvated in PEDOT:PSS molecule and/or solvent is vaporized. Thus, higher f and $V_s$ generate preferentially fine mist particle with a narrower band width. Film deposition occurred when $V_s$ was impressed on positive to a c-Si substrate at a Ts of $30-40^{\circ}C$, whereas no deposition of films occurred on negative, implying that negatively charged mist mainly provide the film deposition. The uniform deposition of PEDOT:PSS films occurred on textured c-Si(100) substrate by adjusting $T_s$ and $V_s$. The adhesion of CMD PEDOT:PSS to c-Si enhanced by $V_s$ conspicuously compared to that of spin-coated film. The CMD PEDOT:PSS/c-Si solar cell devices on textured c-Si(100) exhibited a ${\eta}$ of 11.0% with the better uniformity of the solar cell parameters. Furthermore, ${\eta}$ increased to 12.5% with a $J_{sc}$ of $35.6mA/cm^2$, a $V_{oc}$ of 0.53 V, and a FF of 0.67 with an antireflection (AR) coating layer of 20-nm-thick CMD molybdenum oxide $MoO_x$ (n= 2.1) using negatively charged mist of 0.1 wt% 12 Molybdo (VI) phosphoric acid n-Hydrate) $H_3(PMo_{12}O_40){\cdot}nH_2O$ in methanol. CMD. These findings suggest that the CMD with negatively charged mist has a great potential for the uniform deposition of organic and inorganic on textured c-Si substrate by adjusting $T_s$ and $V_s$.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.186-191
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• 2006

Ferromagnetic amorphous $Ni_{16}Fe_{62}Si_8B_{14}$ and $Co_{70.5}Fe_{4.5}Si_{15}B_{10}$ layers have been devised and incorporated as free layers of magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) to improve MRAM reading and writing performance. The NiFeSiB and CoFeSiB single-layer film exhibited a lower saturation magnetization ($Ms=800emu/cm^3,\;and\;560emu/cm^3$, respectively) compared to that of a $Co_{90}Fe_{10}(Ms=1400emu/cm^3)$. Because amorphous ferromagnetic materials have lower Ms than crystalline ones, the MTJs incorporating amorphous ferromagnetic materials offer lower switching field ($H_{sw}$) values than that of the traditional CoFe-based MTJ. The double-barrier MTJ with an amorphous NiFeSiB free layer offered smooth surface resulting in low bias voltage dependence, and high $V_h\;and\;V_{bd}$ compared with the values of the traditional CoFe-based MTJ.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.33-38
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• 2002

For the evaluation of nucleation and growth behaviors influenced by substrate properties, such as surface energy, structure and electrical properties, chromium nitride films (CrN) were deposited on various substrates (glass, AISI 1040 steel and Si (110) by unbalanced magnetron sputtering. X-ray diffraction and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) were used to study the microstructure and grain growth as a function of deposition time. The diffraction patterns of CrN thin films deposited on Si (110) exhibited crystalline structure with highly preferred orientation of (200) plane parallel to the substrate, whereas the films deposited on glass and AISI 1040 exhibited preferred orientations (200) and minor orientation (111), (311) or (220) plane. The orientation of films deposited both on glass and Si substrates did not depend on the bias voltage (Vs). The grain growth and structure of film deposited on AISI 1040 steel substrate are strongly influenced by the substrate bias in comparison with that deposited onto glass and Si substrates. The differences in the structure and grain growth of CrN films deposited onto different substrates are predominantly related to the properties of the substrate (structure and electrical conductivity).