• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.08a
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• pp.293-294
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• 2011

It is known that semiconductor quantum-dot (QD) heterostructures have superior zero-dimensional quantum confinement, and they have been successfully applied to semiconductor laser diodes (QDLDs) for optical communication and infrared photodetectors (QDIPs) for thermal images [1]. The self-assembled QDs are normally formed at Stranski-Krastanov (S-K) growth mode utilizing the accumulated strain due to lattice-mismatch existing at heterointerfaces between QDs and cap layers. In order to increase the areal density and the number of stacks of QDs, recently, sub-monolayer (SML)-thick QDs (SQDs) with reduced strain were tried by equivalent thicknesses thinner than a wetting layer (WL) existing in conventional QDs (CQDs) by S-K mode. Despite that it is very different from CQDs with a well-defined WL, the SQD structure has been successfully applied to QDIP[2]. In this study, optical characteristics are investigated by using photoluminescence (PL) spectra taken from self-assembled InAs/GaAs QDs whose coverage are changing from submonolayer to a few monolayers. The QD structures were grown by using molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) on semi-insulating GaAs (100) substrates, and formed at a substrate temperature of 480$^{\circ}C$ followed by covering GaAs cap layer at 590$^{\circ}C$. We prepared six 10-period-stacked QD samples with different InAs coverages and thicknesses of GaAs spacer layers. In the QD coverage below WL thickness (~1.7 ML), the majority of SQDs with no WL coexisted with a small amount of CQDs with a WL, and multi-peak spectra changed to a single peak profile. A transition from SQDs to CQDs was found before and after a WL formation, and the sublevel of SQDs peaking at (1.32${\pm}$0.1) eV was much closer to the GaAs bandedge than that of CQDs (~1.2 eV). These revealed that QDs with no WL could be formed by near-ML coverage in InAs/GaAs system, and single-mode SQDs could be achieved by 1.5 ML just below WL that a strain field was entirely uniform.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.49-56
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• 2002

In this study, the InGaP epilayers were grown on the exact and the $2^{\circ}$, $6^{\circ}$, $10^{\circ}$ of cut GaAs substrates by metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy, and the effects of interfacial elastic strains determined by the substrate offcut angle upon the resulting dislocation density of epilayer were investigated for the first time. The elastic strains were obtained from lattice mismatch and lattice misfit by TXRD, and the dislocation densities from epilayer x-ray FWHM. For the offcut angle range used in this study, the elastic strain was maximum and x-ray FWHM minimum at offcut angle $6^{\circ}$. From 11K PL measurements, PL wavelength was found to decrease with an increase of offcut angle. PL intensity was maximum at offcut angle $6^{\circ}$. TEM results showed that the electron diffraction pattern was of typical zincblende structure, and that the dislocation density was minimum for substrate offcut angle $6^{\circ}$. The results obtained in this study, along with the device fabrication process and beam characteristics, clearly demonstrated that the optimum substrate offcut angle for the InGaP/GaAs heterostructures is $6^{\circ}$.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.244-248
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• 2013

The discovery of a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) in $LaAlO_3$ (LAO)/$SrTiO_3$ (STO) heterostructure has stimulated intense research activity. We suggest a new structure model based on $KNbO_3$ (KNO) material. The KNO thin films were grown on $TiO_2$-terminated STO substrates as a p-type structure ($NbO_2/KO/TiO_2$) to form a two-dimensional hole gas (2DHG). The STO thin films were grown on KNO/$TiO_2$-terminated STO substrates as an n-type structure to form a 2DEG. Oxygen pressure during the deposition of the KNO and STO thin films was changed so as to determine the effect of oxygen vacancies on 2DEGs. Our results showed conducting behavior in the n-type structure and insulating properties in the p-type structure. When both the KNO and STO thin films were deposited on a $TiO_2$-terminated STO substrate at a low oxygen pressure, the conductivity was found to be higher than that at higher oxygen pressures. Furthermore, the heterostructure formed at various oxygen pressures resulted in structures with different current values. An STO/KNO heterostructure was also grown on the STO substrate, without using the buffered oxide etchant (BOE) treatment, so as to confirm the effects of the polar catastrophe mechanism. An STO/KNO heterostructure grown on an STO substrate without BOE treatment did not exhibit conductivity. Therefore, we expect that the mechanics of 2DEGs in the STO/KNO heterostructures are governed by the oxygen vacancy mechanism and the polar catastrophe mechanism.

• Journal of Adhesion and Interface
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.100-104
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• 2023

Van der Waals heterostructures have garnered significant attention in recent research due to their excellent electronic characteristics arising from the absence of dangling bonds and the exclusive reliance on Van der Waals forces for interlayer coupling. However, most studies have been confined to fundamental research employing the Scotch tape (mechanical exfoliation) method. We fabricated Van der Waals vertical heterojunction transistors to advance this field using materials exclusively grown via chemical vapor deposition (CVD). CVDgrown graphene was patterned through photolithography to serve as electrodes, while CVD-grown MoSe₂ was employed as the pickup/transfer material, resulting in the realization of Van der Waals heterojunction transistors with interlayer charge transfer effects. The electrical characteristics of the fabricated devices were thoroughly examined. Additionally, we observed variations in the transistor's performance based on the presence of defects in MoSe₂ layer.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.43-48
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• 2024

The discovery of a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) at the interface of LaAlO₃ (LAO) and SrTiO₃ (STO) substrates has sparked significant interest, providing a foundation for cutting-edge research in electronic devices based on complex oxide heterostructures. However, conventional methods for producing LAO thin films, typically employing techniques like pulsed laser deposition (PLD) within physical vapor deposition (PVD), are associated with high costs and challenges in precisely controlling the La and Al composition within LAO. In this study, we adopted a cost-effective alternative approach-solution-based processing-to fabricate LAO thin films and investigated their electrical properties. By adjusting the concentration of the precursor solution, we varied the thickness of LAO films from 2 to 65 nm and determined the sheet resistance and carrier density for each thickness. After vacuum annealing, the sheet resistance of the conductive channel ranged from 0.015 to 0.020 Ω·s^-1, indicating that electron conduction occurs not only at the LAO/STO interface but also into the STO bulk region, consistent with previous studies. These findings demonstrate the successful formation and control of 2DEG through solution-based processing, offering the potential to reduce process costs and broaden the scope of applications in electronic device manufacturing.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.284-284
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• 2016

Topological insulator (TI) is a bulk-insulating material with topologically protected Dirac surface states in the band gap. In particular, $Bi_2Se_3$ attracted great attention as a model three-dimensional TI due to its simple electronic structure of the surface states in a relatively large band gap (~0.3 eV). However, experimental efforts using $Bi_2Se_3$ have been difficult due to the abundance of structural defects, which frequently results in the bulk conduction being dominant over the surface conduction in transport due to the bulk doping effects of the defect sites. One promising approach in avoiding this problem is to reduce the structural defects by heteroepitaxially grow $Bi_2Se_3$ on a substrate with a compatible lattice structure, while also preventing surface degradation by encapsulating the pristine interface between $Bi_2Se_3$ and the substrate in a clean growth environment. A particularly promising choice of substrate for the heteroepitaxial growth is hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN), which has the same two-dimensional (2D) van der Waals (vdW) layered structure and hexagonal lattice symmetry as $Bi_2Se_3$. Moreover, since h-BN is a dielectric insulator with a large bandgap energy of 5.97 eV and chemically inert surfaces, it is well suited as a substrate for high mobility electronic transport studies of vdW material systems. Here we report the heteroepitaxial growth and characterization of high quality topological insulator $Bi_2Se_3$ thin films prepared on h-BN layers. Especially, we used molecular beam epitaxy to achieve high quality TI thin films with extremely low defect concentrations and an ideal interface between the films and substrates. To optimize the morphology and microstructural quality of the films, a two-step growth was performed on h-BN layers transferred on transmission electron microscopy (TEM) compatible substrates. The resulting $Bi_2Se_3$ thin films were highly crystalline with atomically smooth terraces over a large area, and the $Bi_2Se_3$ and h-BN exhibited a clear heteroepitaxial relationship with an atomically abrupt and clean interface, as examined by high-resolution TEM. Magnetotransport characterizations revealed that this interface supports a high quality topological surface state devoid of bulk contribution, as evidenced by Hall, Shubnikov-de Haas, and weak anti-localization measurements. We believe that the experimental scheme demonstrated in this talk can serve as a promising method for the preparation of high quality TI thin films as well as many other heterostructures based on 2D vdW layered materials.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.298-298
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• 2014

Quantum dot infrared photodetectors (QDIPs) based on Stranski-Krastanov (SK) quantum dots (QDs) have been widely explored for improved device performance using various designs of heterostructures. However, one of the biggest limitations of this approach is the "pancake" shape of the dot, with a base of 20-30 nm and a height of 4-6 nm. This limits the 3D confinement in the quantum dot and reduces the ratio of normal incidence absorption to the off-axis absorption. One of the alternative growth modes to the formation of SK QDs is a sub-monolayer (SML) deposition technique, which can achieve a much higher density, smaller size, better uniformity, and has no wetting layer as compared to the SK growth mode. Due to the advantages of SML-QDs, the SML-QDIP design has attractive features such as increased normal incidence absorption, strong in-plane quantum confinement, and narrow spectral wavelength detection as compared with SK-DWELL. In this study, we report on the improved device performance of InAs/InGaAs SML-QDIP with different composition of $Al_xGa1-_xAs$ barrier. Two SML-QDIPs (x=0.07 for sample A and x=0.20 for sample B) are grown with the 4 stacks 0.3 ML InAs. It is investigated that sample A with a confinement-enhanced (CE) $Al_{0.22}Ga_{0.78}As$ barrier had a single peak at $7.8{\mu}m$ at 77 K. However, sample B with an $Al_{0.20}Ga_{0.80}As$ barrier had three peaks at (${\sim}3.5{\mu}m$, ${\sim}5{\mu}m$, ${\sim}7{\mu}m$) due to various quantum confined transitions. The measured peak responsivities (see Fig) are ~0.45 A/W (sample A, at $7.8{\mu}m$, $V_b=-0.4V$ bias) and ~1.3 A/W (sample B, at $7{\mu}m$, $V_b=-1.5V$ bias). At 77 K, sample A and B had a detectivity of $1.2{\times}10^{11}cm.Hz^{1/2}/W$ ($V_b=-0.4V$ bias) and $5.4{\times}10^{11}cm.Hz^{1/2}/W$ ($V_b=-1.5V$ bias), respectively. It is obvious that the higher $D^*$ of sample B (than sample A) is mainly due to the low dark current and high responsivity.