• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.577-582
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• 2013

AZO (aluminum-doped zinc oxide) is one of the best candidate materials to replace ITO (indium tin oxide) for TCOs (transparent conductive oxides) used in flat panel displays, organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), and organic solar cells (OSCs). In the present study, to apply an AZO thin film to the transparent electrode of an organic solar cell, a low-temperature selective atomic layer deposition (ALD) process was adopted to deposit an AZO thin film on a flexible poly-ethylene-naphthalate (PEN) substrate. The reactive gases for the ALD process were di-ethyl-zinc (DEZ) and tri-methyl-aluminum (TMA) as precursors and H2O as an oxidant. The structural, electrical, and optical characteristics of the AZO thin film were evaluated. From the measured results of the electrical and optical characteristics of the AZO thin films deposited on the PEN substrates by ALD, it was shown that the AZO thin film appeared to be comparable to a commercially used ITO thin film, which confirmed the feasibility of AZO as a TCO for flexible organic solar cells in the near future.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2015.08a
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• pp.231.1-231.1
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• 2015

Surface energy, being an important material parameter to control its interactions with the other surfaces plays a key role in bio-related application. Carbon films are found very promising due to their characteristics such as wear and corrosion resistant, high hardness, inert, low resistivity and biocompatibility. The present work deals with the deposition of carbon films using unbalanced facing target magnetron sputtering technique. The discharge characteristics were studied using optical emission spectroscopy and correlated with the film properties. Surface energy was investigated through contact angle measurement. The ID/IG ratio as calculated from Raman spectroscopy data increases with the increase in power density due to the higher number of sp2 clusters embedded in the amorphous matrix. The deposited films were smooth and homogeneous as observed by Atomic force microscopy having RMS roughness in the range of 1.74 to 2.25 nm. It is observed that electrical resistivity and surface energy varies in direct proportionality with operating pressure and has inverse relation with power density. The surface energy results clearly exhibited that these films can have promising applications in cell cultivation.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.08a
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• pp.289-289
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• 2011

The conducting polymer thin films were deposited using the gas phase method which known as molecular layer deposition (MLD). Terephthalaldehyde (TPA) and p-phenylenediamine (PD) were used as monomers to deposit conducting polymer. Self-terminating nature of TPA and PD reaction were demonstrated by growth rate saturation versus precursors dosing time. Infrared spectroscopic and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy were employed to determine the chemical composition and state of conducting polymer thin films. Layer by layer growth and polymerization of thin films can be showed by shifting of absorption edge using UV-VIS spectroscopy. This conducting polymer fabricated by using MLD method gives the opportunity to develop new hybrid materials by combining inorganic materials in nanoscale.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.195-206
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• 1996

Molecular conformations of stereoregular poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) monolayers have been investigated by scanning probe microscopes. Isotactic and syndiotactic PMMAs were found to have right and left hand helical structures, respectively. On the contrary atactic PMMA showed rather random arrangement of the chains. It has been demonstrated that the PMMA Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) films can be utilized to form nanoscale patterns down to 50 nm and to forma geodesic lens. It has also been manifested that the quantum efficiency of a polymer electroluminescent device can be significantly enhanced by inserting the PMMA LB films between the emitting layer and the cathode. All the applications utilize the unique characteristics of the LB films to form thin and uniform films in the molecular level.

• Polymer Science and Technology
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.175-180
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• 2010

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2003.08a
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• pp.73-73
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• 2003

• Proceedings of the Korean Ceranic Society Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.162.2-162
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• 2003

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.286-293
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• 2019

In friction and wear tests that use friction force microscopy (FFM), the wear debris transfer to the tip apex that changes tip radius is a crucial issue that influences the friction and wear performances of films and coatings with nanoscale thicknesses. In this study, FFM tests are performed for bilayer $MoS_2$ film to obtain a better understanding of how geometrical and chemical changes of tip apex influence the friction and wear properties of nanoscale molecular layers. The critical load can be estimated from the test results based on the clear distinction of the failure area. Scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive spectroscopy are employed to measure and observe the geometrical and chemical changes of the tip apex. Under normal loads lower than 1000 nN, the reuse of tips enhances the friction and wear performance at the tip-sample interface as the contact pair changes with the increase of tip radius. Therefore, the reduction of contact pressure due to the increase of tip radius by the transfer of $MoS_2$ or Mo-dominant wear debris and the change of contact pairs from diamond/$MoS_2$ to partial $MoS_2$ or Mo/$MoS_2$ can explain the critical load increase that results from tip reuse. We suggest that the wear debris transfer to the tip apex should be considered when used tips are repeatedly employed to identify the tribological properties of ultra-thin films using FFM.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.08a
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• pp.282-282
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• 2011

Low power consuming operation of phase-change random access memory (PRAM) can be achieved by confining the switching volume of phase change media into nanometer scale. Ge2Sb2Te5 (GST) is one of the best materials for the phase change random access memory (PRAM) because the GST has two stable states, namely, high and low resistance values, which correspond to the amorphous and crystalline phases of GST, respectively. However, achieving the fast operation speed at lower current requires an alternative chalcogenide material to replace the GST and shrinking the dimension of programmable volume. In this paper, we have fabricated nanoscale contact area on Ge2Sb2Te5 thin films with trimming process. The GST material was fabricated by melt quenching method and the GST thin films were deposited with thickness of 100 nm by the electron beam evaporation system. As a result, the reset current can be safely scaled down by reducing the device contact area and we could confirmed the phase-change characteristics by applying voltage pulses.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.08a
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• pp.143.2-143.2
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• 2013

Nanomechanical and electrical properties of vanadium dioxide (VO2) thin films across thermal-driven phase transition are investigated with ultra-high vacuum atomic force microscopy. VO2 thin films have been deposited on the n-type heavily doped silicon wafer by pulsed laser deposition. X-ray diffraction reveals that it is textured polycrystalline with preferential orientation of (100) and (120) planes in monoclinic phase. As the temperature increases, the friction decreased at the temperature below the transition temperature, and then the friction increased as increasing temperature above the transition temperature. We attribute this observation to the combined effect of the thermal lubricity and electronic contribution in friction. Furthermore, the dependence of nanoscale conductance on the local pressure was indicated at the various temperatures, and the result was discussed in the view of pressure-induced metal-insulator transition.