• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.59.1-59.1
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• 2010

Aluminum-induced crystallization (AIC) of amorphous silicon (a-Si) is studied with the structure of a glass/Al/$SiO_2$/a-Si, in which the $SiO_2$ layer has micron-sized laser holes in the stack. An oxide layer between aluminum and a-Si thin films plays a significant role in the metal-induced crystallization (MIC) process determining the properties such as grain size and preferential orientation. In our case, the crystallization of a-Si is carried out only through the key hole because the $SiO_2$ layer is substantially thick enough to prevent a-Si from contacting aluminum. The crystal growth is successfully realized toward the only vertical direction, resulting a crystalline silicon grain with a size of $3{\sim}4{\mu}m$ under the hole. Lateral growth seems to be not occurred. For the AIC experiment, the glass/Al/$SiO_2$/a-Si stacks were prepared where an Al layer was deposited on glass substrate by DC sputter, $SiO_2$ and a-Si films by PECVD method, respectively. Prior to the a-Si deposition, a $30{\times}30$ micron-sized hole array with a diameter of $1{\sim}2{\mu}m$ was fabricated utilizing the femtosecond laser pulses to induce the AIC process through the key holes and the prepared workpieces were annealed in a thermal chamber for 2 hours. After heat treatment, the surface morphology, grain size, and crystal orientation of the polycrystalline silicon (pc-Si) film were evaluated by scanning electron microscope, transmission electron microscope, and energy dispersive spectrometer. In conclusion, we observed that the vertical crystal growth was occurred in the case of the crystallization of a-Si with aluminum by the MIC process in a small area. The pc-Si grain grew under the key hole up to a size of $3{\sim}4{\mu}m$ with the workpiece.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.75.2-75.2
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• 2010

We studied the fabrication of polycrystalline silicon (pc-Si) films as seed layers for application of pc-Si thin film solar cells, in which amorphous silicon (a-Si) films in a structure of glass/Al/$Al_2O_3$/a-Si are crystallized by the aluminum-induced layer exchange (ALILE) process. The properties of pc-Si films formed by the ALILE process are strongly determined by the oxide layer as well as the various process parameters like annealing temperature, time, etc. In this study, the effects of the oxide film thickness on the crystallization of a-Si in the ALILE process, where the thickness of $Al_2O_3$ layer was varied from 4 to 50 nm. For preparation of the experimental film structure, aluminum (~300 nm thickness) and a-Si (~300 nm thickness) layers were deposited using DC sputtering and PECVD method, respectively, and $Al_2O_3$ layer with the various thicknesses by RF sputtering. The crystallization of a-Si was then carried out by the thermal annealing process using a furnace with the in-situ microscope. The characteristics of the produced pc-Si films were analyzed by optical microscope (OM), scanning electron microscope (SEM), Raman spectrometer, and X-ray diffractometer (XRD). As results, the crystallinity was exponentially decayed with the increase of $Al_2O_3$ thickness and the grain size showed the similar tendency. The maximum pc-Si grain size fabricated by ALILE process was about $45{\mu}m$ at the $Al_2O_3$ layer thickness of 4 nm. The preferential crystal orientation was <111> and more dominant with the thinner $Al_2O_3$ layer. In summary, we obtained a pc-Si film not only with ${\sim}45{\mu}m$ grain size but also with the crystallinity of about 75% at 4 nm $Al_2O_3$ layer thickness by ALILE process with the structure of a glass/Al/$Al_2O_3$/a-Si.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.416-427
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• 1994

The changes of crystallinity and microstructure and the $Si_{1-x}Ge_x/Sio_2$ interfaces of $Si_{1-x}Ge_x$ alloys deposited on amorphous $SiO_{2}$ were studied as a function of deposition temperature. The crystallinity, microstructure, and compositional uniformity of $Si_{1-x}Ge_x$ alloys deposited on the SiOl at different temperature were investigated by X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. And $Si_{1-x}Ge_x/Sio_2$ interface were investigated by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. The $Si_{0.7}Ge_{0.3}/Sio_2$ films were deposited on amorphous $SiO_{2}$ at $300^{\circ}C,400^{\circ}C,500^{\circ}C,600^{\circ}C,$ and $700^{\circ}C$ by Si-MBE. In the film deposited at $300^{\circ}C$, only amorphous phase were observed. In the film deposited at $400^{\circ}C$, both amorphous and polycrystalline films were observed. Both phases were deposited simultaneously, but, at initial film growth, amorphous phase prevailed over polycrystalline phase. As the film thickness increased, the fraction of polycrystalline phase increased. At $500^{\circ}C$, thin amorphous layer was observed at lOnm from $SiO_{2}$ surface. In the films deposited at higher than $600^{\circ}C$, only crystalline phase were observed. Polycrystalline films had columnar structure. Compositional uniformity for deposited films were good regardless of deposition temperature. The interfaces of $Si_{1-x}Ge_x/Sio_2$ were flat, whatever polycrystal or amorphous was deposited on $SiO_{2}$.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.561-566
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• 2005

Polycrystalline silicon films were deposited using hot wire CVD (HWCVD). The deposition of silicon thin films was approached by the theory of charged clusters (TCC). The TCC states that thin films grow by self-assembly of charged clusters or nanoparticles that have nucleated in the gas phase during the normal thin film process. Negatively charged clusters of a few nanometer in size were captured on a transmission electron microscopy (TEM) grid and observed by TEM. The negatively charged clusters are believed to have been generated by ion-induced nucleation on negative ions, which are produced by negative surface ionization on a tungsten hot wire. The electric current on the substrate carried by the negatively charged clusters during deposition was measured to be approximately $-2{\mu}A/cm^2$. Silicon thin films were deposited at different $SiH_4$ and $H_2$ gas mixtures and filament temperatures. The crystalline volume fraction, grain size and the growth rate of the films were measured by Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. The deposit ion behavior of the si1icon thin films was related to properties of the charged clusters, which were in turn controlled by the process conditions. In order to verify the effect of the charged clusters on the growth behavior, three different electric biases of -200 V, 0 V and +25 V were applied to the substrate during the process, The deposition rate at an applied bias of +25 V was greater than that at 0 V and -200 V, which means that the si1icon film deposition was the result of the deposit ion of charged clusters generated in the gas phase. The working pressures had a large effect on the growth rate dependency on the bias appled to the substrate, which indicates that pressure affects the charging ratio of neutral to negatively charged clusters. These results suggest that polycrystalline silicon thin films with high crystalline volume fraction and large grain size can be produced by control1ing the behavior of the charged clusters generated in the gas phase of a normal HWCVD reactor.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.475-482
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• 2010

Polycrystalline NiO thin films were deposited on glass substrate by RF magnetron sputtering using only Ar as a plasma sputter gas. based on the analysis of x-ray diffraction (XRD), NiO films had a polycrystalline cubic (NaCl type) structure. NiO thin films grown below and above $200^{\circ}C$ showed preferred orientation of (111) and (220) respectively. It showed colossal change in electrical resistivity as much a ${\sim}10^7$ order form an insulating state of $105\;{\Omega}cm$ below $200^{\circ}C$ to a conducting state of $10^{-2}{\sim}10^{-1}\;{\Omega}cm$ above $300^{\circ}C$ such a Mott metal-insulator transition (MIT) in polycrystalline.

• Korean Journal of Optics and Photonics
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.455-459
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• 2002

The transport and optical properties of $In_2O_3$:Zn(IZO) thin films grown by DC magnetron sputtering deposition have been studied. The deposition temperatures ($T_s$) were varied from room temperature to $400^{\circ}C$ in $50^{\circ}C$ steps. The IZO films are an amorphous phase for $T_s$<$300^{\circ}C$ and polycrystalline phase for $350^{\circ}C$＜$T_s$. In contrast to ordinary films, amorphous IZO films have lower resistivity and higher optical transmittance than polycrystalline IZO films. The resistivity of amorphous IZO was in the range of 0.29~0.4 m$\Omega$cm and that of polycrystalline IZO was in the range of 1~4 m$\Omega$cm. The carrier type for IZO film was found to be n-type, and the carrier density, was $3~5{\times}10^{20}/cm^3$. The Hall mobility, $({\mu}_H)$, was 20~$50\textrm{cm}^2$/V.sec. The predominant scattering mechanisms in both amorphous and polycrystalline IZO films were believed to be ionized impurity scattering and lattice scattering. The visible transmittance of the IZO films, which decreases with an increase of TS, was above 80%.

• Proceedings of the Korea Crystallographic Association Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.7-7
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• 2007

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2012.10a
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• pp.149-150
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• 2012

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2007.02a
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• pp.132-132
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• 2007

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2010.05a
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• pp.29-30
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• 2010