• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
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• 2016.11a
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• pp.59-75
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• 2016

Reduced or black $TiO_{2-x}$ materials with oxygen-deficiency have been achieved by creating oxygen vacancies and/or defects at the surface using different methods. Fascinatingly, they exhibited an extended absorption in VIS and IR instead of only UV light with bandgap decrease from 3.2 (anatase) to ~1 eV. However, despite the dramatic enhancement of optical absorption in black $TiO_{2-x}$ materials, they have failed to show expected visible light-assisted water splitting efficiency. This was ascribed to the high concentration of the surface defects and/or oxygen vacancies, considered as an electron donor to enhance donor density and improve the charge transportation in black $TiO_2$ can also act as charge recombination centers, which eventually decrease photocatalytic activity. Therefore, a black ot reducd $TiO_2$ material with optimized properties would be highly desired for visible light photocatalysis. In this report, a new controlled magnesiothermic reduction has been developed to synthesize reduced black $TiO_{2-x}$ in the presence $H_2/Ar$ for photocatalytic $H_2$ production from methanol-water system. The material possesses an optimum band gap and band position, oxygen vacancies, and surface defects and shows significantly improved optical absorption in the visible and infrared region. The synergistic effects enable the reduced $TiO_{2-x}$ material to show an excellent hydrogen production ability along with long-term stability under the full solar wavelength range of light and visible light, respectively, in the methanol-water system in the presence of Pt as a co-catalyst. These values are superior to those of previously reported black $TiO_2$ materials. On the basis of all the results, it can be realized that the outstanding activity and stability of the reduced of $TiO_{2-x}$ NPs suggest that a balanced combination of different factors like $Ti^{3+}$, surface defects, oxygen vacancy, and recombination center is achieved along with optimized bandgap and band position during the preparation employing magnesiothermic reduction in the presence of $H_2$. The controlled magnesiothermic reduction in the presence of $H_2$ is one of the best alternative ways to produce active and stable $TiO_2-based$ photocatalyst for $H_2$ production.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.141-148
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• 2006

The chemical composition and the semiconducting properties of the passive films formed on Alloy 690 in various film formation conditions were investigated by XPS, photocurrent measurement, and Mott-Schottky analysis. The XPS and photocurrent spectra showed that the passive films formed on Alloy 690 in pH 8.5 buffer solution at ambient temperature, in air at $400^{\circ}C$, and in PWR condition comprise $Cr_2O_3$, $Cr(OH)_3$, ${\gamma}-Fe_2O_3$, NiO, and $Ni(OH)_2$. The thermally grown oxide in air and the passive film formed at high potential (0.3 $V_{SCE}$) in pH 8.5 buffer solution were highly Cr-enriched, whereas the films formed in PWR condition and that formed at low potential (-0.3 $V_{SCE}$) in pH 8.5 buffer solution showed relatively high Ni content and low Cr content. The Mott-Schottky plots exhibited n-type semiconductivity, inferring that the semiconducting properties of the passive films formed on Alloy 690 in various film formation conditions are dominated by Cr-substituted ${\gamma}-Fe_2O_3$. The donor density, i.e., concentration of oxygen vacancy, was measured to be $1.2{\times}10^{21}{\sim}4.6{\times}10^{21}cm^{-3}$ and lowered with increase in the Cr content in the passive film.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.257-257
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• 2011

The amorphous indium-gallium-zinc-oxide (a-IGZO) materials for use in high performance display research fields are strongly investigated due to its good performance, such as high mobility and better transparency. However, the stability of a-IGZO materials is increasingly becoming one of critical issues due to the sub-gap electron trap sites induced by rough interfaces during deposition processing. It is well-known that the threshold voltage shift is related to interface roughness and oxygen vacancy formed by breaking weak chemical bonds. Here, we report the better properties of transparent oxide transistors by reducing the threshold voltage shift with an external rf plasma supported magnetron sputtering system. Mainly, our sputtering method causes the surface of sample to be sleek, so that it prevents the formation of various defects, such as shallow electron trap sites in the interface. External rf power was applied from 0 to 50W during RF sputtering process to enhance the stability of our oxide transistor without having a large voltage shift. To observe the effects of external rf-plasma source on the properties of our devices, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) are carried out to observe surface roughness and morphology of sputtered thin film. In addition, typical electrical properties, such as I-V characteristics are analyzed.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Telematics and Electronics D
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• v.35D no.12
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• pp.30-40
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• 1998

We have calculated ultra-low energy silicon-self ion implantations and silicon damages through classical molecular dynamics simulation using empirical potentials. We tested whether the recently developed Environment-Dependent Interatomic Potential(EDIP) was suitable for ultra low energy ion implantation simulation, and found that point defects formation energies were in good agreement with other theoretical calculations, but the calculated vacancy migration energy was overestimated. Most of the damages that are produced by collision cascades are concentrated into amorphous-like pockets. Also, We upgraded MDRANGE code for silicon ion implantation process simulation. We simulated ultra-low energy boron ion implantation, 200eV, 500eV, and 1000eV respectively, and calculated boron profiles with silicon substrate temperature and tilt angle. We investigated that below 1000eV, channeling effect must be considered.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.30 no.5 s.248
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• pp.397-404
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• 2006

Effects of surface defect distribution on flame instability during flame-surface interaction are experimentally investigated. To examine chemical quenching phenomenon which is caused by radical adsorption and recombination processes on the surface, thermally grown silicon oxide plates with well-defined defect density were prepared. ion implantation technique was used to control the number of defects, i.e. oxygen vacancies. In an attempt to preferentially remove oxygen atoms from silicon dioxide surface, argon ions with low energy level from 3keV to 5keV were irradiated at the incident angle of $60^{\circ}$. Compositional and structural modification of $SiO_2$ induced by low-energy $Ar^+$ ion irradiation has been characterized by Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS). It has been found that as the ion energy is increased, the number of structural defect is also increased and non-stoichiometric condition of $SiO_x({\le}2)$ is enhanced.

• Advances in Energy Research
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.117-124
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• 2015

In this paper, we have reported an enhancement in thermoelectric properties of un-doped zinc oxide (ZnO) grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) on silicon (001) substrate by annealing treatment. The grown ZnO thin films were annealed in oxygen environment at $500^{\circ}C-800^{\circ}C$, keeping a step of $100^{\circ}C$ for one hour. Room temperature Seekbeck measurements showed that Seebeck coefficient and power factor increased from 222 to $510{\mu}V/K$ and $8.8{\times}10^{-6}$ to $2.6{\times}10^{-4}Wm^{-1}K^{-2}$ as annealing temperature increased from 500 to $800^{\circ}C$ respectively. This observation was related with the improvement of crystal structure of grown films with annealing temperature. X-ray diffraction (XRD) results demonstrated that full width half maximum (FWHM) of ZnO (002) plane decreased and crystalline size increased as the annealing temperature increased. Photoluminescence study revealed that the intensity of band edge emission increased and defect emission decreased as annealing temperature increased because the density of oxygen vacancy related donor defects decreased with annealing temperature. This argument was further justified by the Hall measurements which showed a decreasing trend of carrier concentration with annealing temperature.

• Current Applied Physics
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• v.18 no.11
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• pp.1388-1392
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• 2018

Metal thin films are used widely to solve the vibration problem. However, damping mechanism is still not clear, which limits the further improvement of the damping properties for film and the development of multi-functional damping coating. In this paper, Damping microscopic mechanism of porous metal films was investigated at both macroscopically and microscopically mixed levels. Molecular dynamics simulation method was used to model and simulate the loading-unloading numerical experiment on the micro-pore and vacancy model to get the stress-strain curve and the microstructure diagram of different defects. And damping factor was calculated by the stress-strain curve. The results show that dislocations and new vacancies appear in the micro-pores when metal film is stretched. The energetic consumption from the motion of dislocation is the main reason for the damping properties of materials. Micro-mechanism of damping properties is discussed with the results of in-situ experiment.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.199-205
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• 2010

The electrical properties and defect states in ZnO substrates were studied during high-energy electron beam irradiations. 1 MeV and 2 MeV electron-beam with dose of $1{\times}10^{16}$ electrons/$cm^2$ were irradiated on Zn-surface of the sample. In the sample irradiated by 1 MeV, the leakage current was increased by electron-beam induced surface defects, while the enhancement of on/off property and the decrease of leakage current appeared in the 2 MeV irradiated sample. From the deep level transient spectroscopy measurements for these samples, it showed that the defect states with the activation energies of $E_c$-0.33 eV and $E_v$+0.8 eV are generated during the high energy electron-beam irradiation. Especially, it considered that the $E_c$-0.33 eV state related with O-vacancy affects to their electrical properties.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.327-332
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• 1999

The recovery activation energy, the order of reaction and the recovery rate constant were detemined by isochronal and isothermal annealing treatment to investigate the recovery behaviors of neutron irradiated Mn-Mo-Ni low alloy steels$(fluence: 2.3\times10^{19}ncm^{-2}, 553K, E\geq1.0 MeV)$. Vickers microhardness tests were conducted to trace the recovery behavior after heat treatments. The results were analyzed in terms of recovery stages, behavior of responsible defects and recovery kinetics. It was shown that recovery occurred through two annealing stages(stage I : 703-753K, stage n : 813-873K) with re$\infty$very activation energies of 2.5 eV and 2.93 eV for each stage I and n, respectively. From the comparison of unirradiated and irradiated isochronal anneal curves, a radiation anneal hardening(RAH) peak was identified at around 813K. Most of recovery have occurred during about 120 min irrespective of isothermal annealing temperatures of 743K and 833K. Recovery rate constants were determined to be $3.4\times10^{-4}min^{-1} and 7.1\times10^{-4}min^{-1}$ for stage I and II, respectively. The order of reaction was about 2 for both recovery stages. Comparing the obtained data with those of previously reported results on neutron irradiated Mn- Mo- Ni steels, the thermal recovery be­havior of the present material seems to occur by the dissociation of point defect clusters formed during irradiation, and by the recombination process of self-interstitials and vacancies from dissociated vacancy clusters.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.24 no.12
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• pp.962-968
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• 2011

In this study, we investigated the effects of Mn dopant (0.1~3.0 at% $Mn_3O_4$ sintered at 1000$^{\circ}C$ for 1 h in air) on the bulk trap (i.e. defect) and grain boundary properties of ZnO, ZM(0.1~3.0) using admittance spectroscopy (AS), and impedance-modulus spectroscopy (IS & MS). As a result, three kinds of defect were found below the conduction band edge of ZnO as 0.09~0.14 eV (attractive coulombic center), 0.22~25 eV ($Zn^{{\cdot}{\cdot}}_i$), and 0.32~0.33 eV ($V^{\cdot}_o$). The oxygen vacancy increased with Mn doping. In ZM, an electrically single grain boundary as double Schottky barrier was formed with 0.82~1.0 eV of activation energies by IS & MS. We also find out that the barriers of grain boundary of Mn-doped ZnO (${\alpha}$-factor=0.13) were more stabilized and homogenized with temperature compared to pure ZnO.