• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.18 no.10
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• pp.521-528
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• 2008

We present the structural, optical, and electrical properties of amorphous silicon suboxide (a-$SiO_x$) films grown on indium tin oxide glass substrates with a radio frequency magnetron technique from a polycrystalline silicon oxide target using ambient Ar. For different substrate-target distances (d = 8 cm and 10 cm), the deposition temperature effects were systematically studied. For d = 8cm, oxygen content in a-$SiO_x$ decreased with dissociation of oxygen onto the silicon oxide matrix; temperature increased due to enlargement of kinetic energy. For d = 10 cm, however, the oxygen content had a minimum between $150^{\circ}\;and\;200^{\circ}$. Using simple optical measurements, we can predict a preferred orientation of liquid crystal molecules on a-$SiO_x$ thin film. At higher oxygen content (x > 1.6), liquid crystal molecules on an inorganic liquid crystal alignment layer of a-$SiO_x$ showed homogeneous alignment; however, in the lower case (x < 1.6), liquid crystals showed homeotropic alignment.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.55 no.6
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• pp.441-447
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• 2022

Silicon-based materials are one of the most promising anode active materials in lithium-ion battery. A carbon layer decorated on the surface of silicon particles efficiently suppresses the large volume expansion of silicon and improves electrical conductivity. Carbon coating through chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is one of the most effective strategies to synthesize carbon- coated silicon materials suitable for mass production. Herein, we synthesized carbon coated SiOx via pilot scale CVD reactor (P-SiO_x@C) and carbon coated SiO_x via industrial scale CVD reactor (I-SiO_x@C) to identify physical characteristic changes according to the CVD capacity. Reduced size silicon domains and local non-uniform carbon coating layer were detected in I-SiO_x@C due to non-uniform temperature distribution in the industrial scale CVD reactor with large capacity, resulting in increased surface area due to severe electrolyte consumption.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.325-325
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• 2011

Very initial stage of oxidation process of Si (001) surface at room temperature (300 K) and high temperature (1200 K) was investigated using large scale molecular dynamics simulation. Reactive force field potential [1] was used for the simulation owing to its ability to handle charge variation as well as breaking and forming of bonds associated with the oxidation reaction. The results show that oxygen molecules adsorb dissociatively or otherwise leave the silicon surface. Initial position and orientation of oxygen molecule above the surface play important role in determining final state and time needed to dissociate. At 300 K, continuous transformation of ion $Si^+$ (or suboxide Si2O) to $Si2^+$ (SiO), $Si3^+$ (Si2O3) and finally to $Si4^+$ (SiO2) clearly observed. High temperature silicon surface provide heat energy that enable oxygen atom to penetrate into deeper silicon surface. The heat energy also retards adsorption process. As a result, transformation of ion $Si^+$ is impeded at 1200 K.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.33 no.12
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• pp.530-536
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• 2023

The theoretical capacity of silicon-based anode materials is more than 10 times higher than the capacity of graphite, so silicon can be used as an alternative to graphite anode materials. However, silicon has a much higher contraction and expansion rate due to lithiation of the anode material during the charge and discharge processes, compared to graphite anode materials, resulting in the pulverization of silicon particles during repeated charge and discharge. To compensate for the above issues, there is a growing interest in SiO_x materials with a silica or carbon coating to minimize the expansion of the silicon. In this study, spherical silica (SiO₂) was synthesized using TEOS as a starting material for the fabrication of such SiO_x through heating in a reduction atmosphere. SiO_x powder was produced by adding PVA as a carbon source and inducing the reduction of silica by the carbothermal reduction method. The ratio of TEOS to distilled water, the stirring time, and the amount of PVA added were adjusted to induce size and morphology, resulting in uniform nanosized spherical silica particles. For the reduction of the spherical monodisperse silica particles, a nitrogen gas atmosphere mixed with 5 % hydrogen was applied, and oxygen atoms in the silica were selectively removed by the carbothermal reduction method. The produced SiO_x powder was characterized by FE-SEM to examine the morphology and size changes of the particles, and XPS and FT-IR were used to examine the x value (O/Si ratio) of the synthesized SiO_x.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.75-83
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• 2021

The tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) structure got more consideration for development of high performance solar cells by the introduction of a tunnel oxide layer between the substrate and poly-Si is best for attaining interface passivation. The quality of passivation of the tunnel oxide layer clearly depends on the bond of SiO in the tunnel oxide layer, which is affected by the subsequent annealing and the tunnel oxide layer was formed in the suboxide region (SiO, Si₂O, Si₂O₃) at the interface with the substrate. In the suboxide region, an oxygen-rich bond is formed as a result of subsequent annealing that also improves the quality of passivation. To control the surface morphology, annealing profile, and acceleration rate, an oxide tunnel junction structure with a passivation characteristic of 700 mV or more (V_oc) on a p-type wafer could achieved. The quality of passivation of samples subjected to RTP annealing at temperatures above 900℃ declined rapidly. To improve the quality of passivation of the tunnel oxide layer, the physical properties and thermal stability of the thin layer must be considered. TOPCon silicon solar cell has a boron diffused front emitter, a tunnel-SiO_x/n⁺-poly-Si/SiN_x:H structure at the rear side, and screen-printed electrodes on both sides. The saturation currents J_o of this structure on polished surface is 1.3 fA/cm² and for textured silicon surfaces is 3.7 fA/cm² before printing the silver contacts. After printing the Ag contacts, the J_o of this structure increases to 50.7 fA/cm² on textured silicon surfaces, which is still manageably less for metal contacts. This structure was applied to TOPCon solar cells, resulting in a median efficiency of 23.91%, and a highest efficiency of 24.58%, independently. The conversion efficiency of interdigitated back-contact solar cells has reached up to 26% by enhancing the optoelectrical properties for both-sides-contacted of the cells.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.32 no.10
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• pp.1139-1146
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• 1995

$\beta$-SiC whiskers could be formed from a system of mullite-carbon-hydrogen by VLS mechanism at elevated temperatures. It was considered that methane gases were generated from the reaction of hydrogen gases with carbon black, and were reacted with mullite to produce two kinds of gases; silicon suboxide (SiO) and carbon monoxide (CO) of precursors of SiC. With increasing the synthesizing temperature up to 146$0^{\circ}C$, the formation of $\beta$-SiC whisker increased from 0.58 mg/$\textrm{cm}^2$ to 3.98 mg/$\textrm{cm}^2$ on the basis of unit area of carbon block, and the diameters of whiskers had their uniformity due to the reduction in stacking faults.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.5 no.6
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• pp.706-714
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• 1995

Silicon oxide thin films were deposited by remote plasma chemical vapor deposition (RPCYD). The effect of the operating variables, such as plasma power, deposition temperature and partial pressure of reactant on the material Properties of the silicon oxide film was investigated. By XPS, it was found out that the film was suboxide (O/Si<2) and small amount of nitrogen due to the plasma excitation was accumulated at the Si/SiO$_2$interface. The amount of dangling bonds at the Si/SiO$_2$interfaces were measured by ESR and the concentration of hydrogen bond was obtained by SIMS and FT-IR. The bond angle distribution(d$\theta$/$\theta$) was shown to be similiar to thermal oxide above 20$0^{\circ}C$ but the etch rate was higher than that of the thermal oxides due to the structural difference and the stress between silicon substrate and silicon oxide film.