• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.29 no.9
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• pp.547-552
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• 2019

In the present study, the thermal conductivity of a silicon nitride($Si_3N_4$) thin-film is evaluated using the dual-wavelength pump-probe technique. A 100-nm thick $Si_3N_4$ film is deposited on a silicon (100) wafer using the radio frequency plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition technique and film structural characteristics are observed using the X-ray reflectivity technique. The film's thermal conductivity is measured using a pump-probe setup powered by a femtosecond laser system of which pump-beam wavelength is frequency-doubled using a beta barium borate crystal. A multilayer transient heat conduction equation is numerically solved to quantify the film property. A finite difference method based on the Crank-Nicolson scheme is employed for the computation so that the experimental data can be curve-fitted. Results show that the thermal conductivity value of the film is lower than that of its bulk status by an order of magnitude. This investigation offers an effective way to evaluate thermophysical properties of nanoscale ceramic and dielectric materials with high temporal and spatial resolutions.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.115-121
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• 2012

Exploration in microelectromechanical systems(MEMS) and nanotechnology requires evaluation techniques suitable for sub-micron length scale so that thermal and mechanical properties of novel materials can be investigated for optimal design of miro/nanostructures. The ultrafast optical pump-probe technique provides a contact-free and non-destructive way to characterize nanoscale thin-films, and its ultrahigh temporal resolution enables the study of heat-transport phenomena down to a sub-picosecond regime. This paper reviews the principle of optical pump-probe technique and introduces its application to the area of micro/nano-NDE.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2003.04a
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• pp.1395-1400
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• 2003

This paper introduces a novel scheme for determining the thermal diffusivity of solids using the photothermal mirage technique. The suggested scheme extends the thermal-wave coupling method, employing the solution to the heat conduction equation in close proximity to the pump beam. Therefore, determination of thermal diffusivity is possible by detecting the mirage signal with small separation between the probe and pump beams, with enhanced intensity of the mirage signal. Though the method requires information about the probe-beam height, the absolute transverse position of the probe beam need not be known as it is automatically evaluated by the iterative-computation procedure. The thermal diffusivity of Ni is measured by the proposed scheme and the result demonstrates good agreement with the literature value to within 5 %.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.27 no.9
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• pp.1220-1228
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• 2003

The mirage technique is proved to be powerful in measuring the thermal diffusivity of materials. In particular, its contactless nature makes it suitable for delicate samples and microscale structures. In this study, thermal-wave-coupling method is developed in a general form for both thermally thin and thick samples. In the suggested measuring scheme, the probe beam can be positioned close to the pump beam and the absolute position need not be measured. Therefore the new scheme provides a relatively simple yet effective way to determine the thermal diffusivity of thermally thick samples. Thermal diffusivities of bulk samples like Ni and Al were measured and the characteristics of mirage signal for a thin film were observed by using the mirage experimental setup. The apparent thermal diffusivity was measured by varying such parameters as probe beam height, size of pump beam, power of pump beam, and surface condition of sample. From the practical standpoint, it is shown that the size of the pump beam is the most important factor for accurate thermaldiffusivity measurement. Experiments using thin-film samples show that the thermal diffusivity of a substrate covered with thin film can be measured by photothermal mirage signals.

• Proceedings of the Optical Society of Korea Conference
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• 1989.02a
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• pp.55-58
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• 1989

The methods of recording transient phenomena with picosecond or better resolution fall into two basic categories: those in which the detector itself prossesses adequate time resolution for the task at hand, and those in which the response of the system is sampled by examining the characteristics of a second pulse ("the probe") delayed in time from the initiating pulse ("the pump") as a function of time delay between pump and probe cases. In this case the time resolution is only limited by the pump-and probe-pulse durations. As an application of this time-resolved spectroscopic technique, the ultrafast orientational relaxation phenomena of the dye molecules are currently under investigation in our laboratory. In this presentation the status of our experiment is summarized.iment is summarized.

• Korean Journal of Optics and Photonics
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.209-213
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• 1991

Recently, the developments in generating and amplifying ultrashort optical pulses $(ps=10^{-12}s or fs=10^{-15}s)$ have imposed on great advances in the time-resolved laser spectroscopy. Especially, the transient absorption spectroscopy has a wide application range and the main idea of this technique is pump & probe method. After the pump pulse makes the material an excited or a transient states, the probe pulse is sent through the material to measure the absorbance change due to the transient states. Here, if the absorbance change was measured by the time delay between pump & probe pulses, the dynamic information of the excited or the transient states (the transient abnsorption changes by time & wavelength) can be obtained. At our laboratory, the ultrashort optic1 pulse (

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.391-391
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• 2016

The carrier transport is a key factor that determines the device performances of semiconductor devices such as solar cells and transistors [1]. Particularly, devices composed of in amorphous semiconductors, the transport is often restricted by carrier trapping, associated with various defects. So far, the trapping has been studied for as-grown films at room temperature; however it has not been studied during growth under plasma processing. Here, we demonstrate the detection of trapped carriers in hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) films during plasma processing, and discuss the carrier trapping and defect kinetics. Using an optically pump-probe technique, we detected the trapped carriers (electrons) in an a-Si:H films during growth by a hydrogen diluted silane discharge [2]. A device-grade intrinsic a-Si:H film growing on a glass substrate was illuminated with pump and probe light. The pump induced the photocurrent, whereas the pulsed probe induced an increment in the photocurrent. The photocurrent and its increment were separately measured using a lock-in technique. Because the increment in the photocurrent originates from emission of trapped carriers, and therefore the trapped carrier density was determined from this increment under the assumption of carrier generation and recombination dynamics [2]. We found that the trapped carrier density in device grade intrinsic a-Si:H was the order of 1e17 to 1e18 cm-3. It was highly dependent on the growth conditions, particularly on the growth temperature. At 473K, the trapped carrier density was minimized. Interestingly, the detected trapped carriers were homogeneously distributed in the direction of film growth, and they were decreased once the film growth was terminated by turning off the discharge.

• Proceedings of the Optical Society of Korea Conference
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• 2007.02a
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• pp.104-105
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• 2007

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.25 no.12
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• pp.1829-1832
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• 2004

We have developed a new femtosecond probe technique by using stimulated Raman spectroscopy. The cross phase modulation in femtosecond time scale associated with off-resonant interaction was shown to be eliminated by integrating the transient gain/loss signal over the time delay between the Raman pump pulse and the continuum pulse. The stimulated Raman gain of neat cyclohexane was obtained to demonstrate the feasibility of the technique. Spectral and temporal widths of stimulated Raman spectra were controlled by using a narrow band pass filter. Femtosecond stimulated Raman spectroscopy was proposed as a highly useful probe in time-resolved vibrational spectroscopy.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2008.11b
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• pp.2381-2384
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• 2008

The heat exchange between the Borehole Heat Exchanger(BHE) and the surrounding ground depends directly on ground thermal conductivity k at the certain site. The k is thus a key parameter in designing BHE and coupled geothermal heat pump systems. Currently, although a thermal hydraulic Response Test(TRT) is mostly used in practice, the thermal hydraulic TRT needs additional power and is generally time-consuming. A new, simple wireless probe for hi-speed k determination was introduced in this paper. This technique using a wireless probe is less time-consuming and requires no external source of energy for measurement and predicts local thermal properties by measuring soil temperatures along the depth. Measured temperature data along the depth was analyzed. As a result, the electronic wireless probe can replace the conventional hydraulic TRT method after carrying out the additional research on a lot of local heat flow, etc.