• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
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• v.48 no.9
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• pp.616-621
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• 1999

A planar inductively coupled $CH_4/H_2/Ar$plasma was used to investigate dry etch characteristics of GaN as a function of input power, RF bias power, and etch gas composition. Etch rate of GaN increased with input power up to 600 W and was saturated at the higher power. Also, the etch rates increased with increasing RF bias power, composition of $CH_4$ and Ar gas. We achieved the maximum etch rate of $930{\AA}$/min at the input power 400 W, RF bias power 250 W, and operational pressure 10 mTorr. This paper shows that smooth etched surface having roughness less than 1 nm in rms can be obtained by using planar inductively coupled plasma with $CH_4/H_2/Ar$ gas chemistry.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.35-40
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• 2010

We have investigated the effects of hydrogen injection via in-situ gas addition ($O_2$, $H_2$, or $O_2$ + $H_2$ gas) and plasma post-treatment (Ar or Ar + H plasma) on material properties of ZnO that is considered to be as a channel layer in transparent thin film transistors. The variations in the electrical resistivity, optical transmittance and bandgap energy, and crystal quality of ZnO thin films were characterized in terms of the methods and conditions used in hydrogen injection. The resistivity was significantly decreased by injection of hydrogen; approximately $10^6\;{\Omega}cm$ for as-grown, $1.2\;{\times}\;10^2\;{\Omega}cm$ for in-situ with $O_2/H_2\;=\;2/3$ addition, and $0.1\;{\Omega}cm$ after Ar + H plasma treatment of 90 min. The average transmittance of ZnO films measured at a wavelength of 400-700 nm was gradually increased by increasing the post-treatment time in Ar + H plasma. The optical bandgap energy of ZnO films was almost monotonically increased by decreasing the $O_2/H_2$ ratio in in-situ gas addition or by increasing the post-treatment time in Ar + H plasma, while the post-treatment using Ar plasma hardly affected the bandgap energy. The role of hydrogen in ZnO was discussed by considering the creation and annihilation of oxygen vacancies as well as the formation of shallow donors by hydrogen.

• Journal of Korea Foundry Society
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.175-183
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• 1995

It is difficult to remove such interstitial impurities as sulfur, oxygen, hydrogen and carbon in Fe-Ni alloys. Thermodynamic and kinetic studies were carried out on the behavior of hydrogen gas, oxygen gas, Si, Al and slag, and the reaction time by the $Ar/Ar-H_2$ plasma and electron beam melting. After the addition of Al, Si, they were melted by Ar plasma with reaction time changed. 80%Ni-Fe alloys showed a better deoxidation than 36%Ni-Fe alloys. At $Ar-H_2$ plasma melting, the deoxidation was significant. In the case of the electron beam melting, the residual oxygen was higher than in Ar plasma melting because electron beam melting temperature was lower than that of Ar plasma. For the decaburization, it was melted by $Ar-O_2$ plasma melting, which could remove effectively carbon by activated oxygen in plasma. We added slag to Fe-Ni alloys for the desulfurization. As the result of this experiments, the amount of residual sulfur was not changed according to the slag ratio and reaction time.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.32 no.7
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• pp.809-816
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• 1995

Ti1-xAlxN films were successfully deposited on high speed steel and silicon wafer by plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition using a TiCl4/AlCl3/N2/Ar/H2 gas mixture. Plasma process enabled N2 gas to nitride AlCl3, which is not possible in sense of thermodynamics. XPS analyses revealed that the deposited layer contained Al-N bond as well as Ti-N bond. Ti1-xAlxN films were polycrystalline and had single phase, B1-NaCl structure of TiN. Interplanar distance, d200, of (200) crystal plane of Ti1-xAlxN was, however, decreased with Al content, x. Al incorporation into TiN caused the grain size to be finer and changed strong (200) preferred orientation of TiN to random oriented microstructure. Those microstructural changes with Al addition resulted in the increase of micro-hardness of Ti1-xAlxN film up to 2800Kg/$\textrm{mm}^2$ compared with 1400Kg/$\textrm{mm}^2$ of TiN.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.279-282
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• 2012

$SnO_2$ thin films were prepared on the Si substrate by radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering and then surface of the films were irradiated with intense Ar ion beam to investigate the effect of Ar ion irradiation on the properties and hydrogen gas sensitivity of the films. From atomic force microscope observation, it is supposed that intense Ar bombardments promote rough surface and increase gas sensitivity of $SnO_2$ films for hydrogen gas. The films that Ar ion beam irradiated at 6 keV show the higher sensitivity than the films were irradiated at 3 keV and 9 keV. These results suggest that the $SnO_2$ thin films irradiated with optimized Ar ion beam are promising for practical high-performance hydrogen gas sensors.

• Progress in Superconductivity
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.116-121
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• 2012

Effect of mixed gas and additional Mg powder in an annealing process of the $MgB_2$ is investigated. Four different type of samples were prepared, each in different annealing environment of Ar, $Ar+4%H_2$, Ar with Mg powder and $Ar+4%H_2$ with Mg powder. Different annealing environment did not affect the electron-phonon interaction which is reflected from the same superconducting transition of 36.6 K for all samples. The reducing effect of hydrogen is clearly depicted from the presence of excess Mg in sample synthesized in $Ar+4%H_2$ gas implying the reduced rate of reaction between Mg and B. This has manifested itself in terms of slightly increased high-field critical current density of the sample. In contrast, the sample synthesized in $Ar+4%H_2$ with Mg powder, has shown overall enhancement in the superconducting properties as presented by higher diamagnetic saturation and critical current density.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.203-207
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• 2009

We have investigated the effect of ambient gases on the structural, electrical, and optical characteristics of ITO thin films intended for use as anode contacts in OLED (organic light emitting diodes) devices. These ITO thin films are deposited by radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering under different ambient gases (Ar, Ar+$O_2$, and Ar+$H_2$) at $300{^{\circ}C}$. In order to investigate the influences of the oxygen and hydrogen, the flow rate of oxygen and hydrogen in argon mixing gas has been changed from 0.5 sccm to 5 sccm and from 0.01 sccm to 0.25 sccm, respectively. The intensity of the (400) peak in the ITO thin films increased with increasing $O_2$, flow rate whilst the (400) peak was nearly invisible in an atmosphere of Ar+$H_2$. The electrical resistivity of the ITO thin films increased with increasing $O_2$ flow rate, whereas the electrical resistivity decreased sharply under an Ar+$H_2$ atmosphere and was nearly similar regardless of the $H_2$ flow rate. The change of electrical resistivity with changes in the ambient gas composition was mainly interpreted in terms of the charge carrier mobility rather than the charge carrier concentration. All the films showed an average transmittance of over 80% in the visible range. The OLED device was fabricated with different ITO substrates made with the configuration of ITO/$\alpha$-NPD/DPVB/$Alq_3$/LiF/Al in order to elucidate the performance of the ITO substrate. Current density and luminance of OLED devices with ITO thin films deposited in Ar+$H_2$ ambient gas is the highest among all the ITO thin films.

• Journal of Surface Science and Engineering
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.113-121
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• 2002

We have investigated insulating properties of $SiO_2$ interlayer for the thin film strain gauge, which were prepared by RF magnetron sputtering method in various deposition conditions, such as Ar pressure, gas flow rates and sputtering gases. SEM, AFM and FT-IR techniques were used to analyze its structures and composition. As the Ar pressure and the flow rate increased, the insulating interlayer showed low insulating resistance due to its porous structure and defects. Oxygen deficiency in $SiO_2$ was decreased as fabricated by hydrogen reactive sputtering. We could enhance the surface mobility of sputtered adatoms by using Ar/$H_2$ sputtering gas and obtain a good surface roughness and insulating property. The optimum insulating resistance of 9.22 G$\Omega$ was obtained in Ar/30% $H_2$ mixed gas, flow rate 10sccm, and 1mTorr.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.62 no.1
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• pp.52-57
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• 2020

In rumen in vitro experiments, although nitrogen gas (N₂) flushing has been widely used, its effects on rumen fermentation characteristics are not clearly determined. The present study is the first to evaluate the effects of N₂ flushing on rumen fermentation characteristics in in vitro batch culture system by comparing with new applicable non-metabolizable gas: argon (Ar). The rumen fluid was taken from two Korean native heifers followed by incubation for 3, 9, 12, and 24 h with N₂ or Ar flushing. As a result, in all incubation time, N₂ flushing resulted in higher total gas production than Ar flushing (p < 0.01). Additionally, in N₂ flushing group, ammonia nitrogen was increased (p < 0.01). However, volatile fatty acids profiles and pH were not affected by the flushing gases (p > 0.05). In conclusion, the present study demonstrated that N₂ flushing can influence the rumen nitrogen metabolism via increased ammonia nitrogen concentration and Ar flushing can be used as a new alternative flushing gas.

• Journal of Surface Science and Engineering
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.164-168
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• 2004

Polycrystalline silicon thin films were deposited by inductively coupled plasma (ICP) assisted magnetron sputtering using a gas mixture of Ar and $H_2$ on a glass substrate at $250^{\circ}C$. At constant Ar mass flow rate of 10 sccm, the working pressure was changed between 10mTorr and 70mTorr with changing $H_2$ flow rate. The effects of RF power applied to ICP coil and $Ar/H_2$ gas mixing ratio on the properties of the deposited Si films were investigated. The crystallinity was evaluated by both X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy. From the results of Raman spectroscopy, the crystallinity was improved as hydrogen mixing ratio was increased up to$ Ar/H_2$=10/16 sccm; the maximum crystalline fraction was 74% at this condition. When RF power applied to ICP coil was increased, the crystallinity was also increased around 78%. In order to investigate the surface roughness of the deposited films, Atomic Force Microscopy was used.