• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.54.2-54.2
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• 2012

Solid-state dewetting of thin films is a process through which continuous solid films decay to form islands. Dewetting of thin films has long been a critical issue in microelectronics and much effort has been made to prevent the process and enhance the stability of films. On the other hand, dewetting has also been purposely induced to create arrays of particles and other structures for applications, including plasmonic structures and catalysts for growing nanotube and nanowire. We have investigated ways of producing regular structures via templated dewetting of thin films. Mainly, two different approaches have been used in our works to template dewetting of thin films: periodic topographical templating and planar patterning of epitaxially-grown films. Dewetting of topographically-patterned thin films results in the formation of nanoparticle arrays with spatial and crystallographic orders. Morphological evolution during templated-dewetting of single crystal films occurs in deterministic ways because of geometric and crystallographic constraints, and leads to the formation of regular structures with smaller sizes and more complex shapes than the initial patches. These results will be reviewed in this presentation.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.47 no.5
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• pp.316-321
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• 2009

Co nanoparticles on silica substrates were fabricated by inducing a thin-film dewetting through two different processes-furnace annealing and pulsed-laser annealing. The effects of annealing temperature, film thickness and laser energy density on dewetting morphology and mechanism were investigated. Co thinfilms with thicknesses between 3 to 15 nm were deposited using ion-beam sputtering, and then, in order to induce dewetting, thermally annealed in furnace at temperatures between 600 and $900^{\circ}C$. Some as-deposited films were irradiated using a Nd-YAG pulsed-laser of 266 nm wavelength to induce dewetting in liquid-state. Films annealed in furnace agglomerated to form nanoparticles above $700^{\circ}C$, and those average particle size and spacing were increased with an increase of film thickness. On the laser annealing process, above the energy density of $100mJ/cm^2$, metal films were completely dewetted and the agglomerated particles exhibited greater size uniformity than those on the furnace annealing process. A detailed dewetting mechanism underlaying both processes were discussed.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.151-156
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• 2006

A method for fabrication of nano-scale GaN structure by inductively coupled plasma etching is proposed, exploiting a thermal dewetting of Pt thin film as an etch mask. The nano-scale Pt metal islands were formed by the dewetting of 2-dimensional film on $SiO_2$ dielectric materials during rapid thermal annealing process. For the case of 30 nm thick Pt films, pattern formation and dewetting was initiated at temperatures greater $600^{\circ}C$. Controlling the annealing temperature and time as well as the thickness of the Pt metal film affected the size and density of Pt islands. The activation energy for the formation of Pt metal island was calculated to be 23.2 KJ/mole. The islands show good resistance to dry etching by a $CF_4$ based plasma for dielectric etching indicating that the metal islands produced by dewetting are suitable for use as an etch mask in the fabrication of nano-scale structures.

• Applied Science and Convergence Technology
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.172-177
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• 2015

We present disordered moth eye structures on curved surfaces fabricated by dry etching of thermally dewetted metal nanoparticles. This lithography-free fabrication allows the formation of subwavelength scale nanostructures on the strongly inclined surfaces such as ball lens as well as on the microlens arrays with low curvature. In particular, we found that the size and average distance of nanostructures are closely related to the inclined angle of the surface. Experimental results on oblique angle deposition of metal thin films followed by thermal dewetting also support these effects.

• Journal of Information Display
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.14-19
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• 2008

We demonstrated the capillary force lithography (CFL) method for controlling the azimuthal anchoring energy of a liquid crystal (LC) alignment layer. When a thermoplastic polymer film is heated to over the glass transition temperature, the melted polymer is filled into the mold structure by the capillary action and the aspect ratio of the pattern is determined by the dewetting time of the CFL process. Here, the proposed method showed that the azimuthal anchoring energy of the LC alignment layer could be simply controlled by the surface relief patterns which were determined by the dewetting times during the CFL patterning.

• 한국정보디스플레이학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.08a
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• pp.1719-1722
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• 2006

We proposed a soft-lithographic method for aligning a liquid crystal (LC) in patterned azimuthal orientations. It is demonstrated that a thermoplastic polystyrene layer is patterned from a thermally stable polyimide layer via pressure-assisted capillary force lithography, which provides multidirectional LC alignment condition simply followed by a unidirectional rubbing process.

• Applied Science and Convergence Technology
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.284-288
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• 2014

We present tapered nanostructures fabricated on a selective area of gallium phosphide substrates for advanced optoelectronic device applications. A lithography-free fabrication process was accomplished by dry etching of metal nanoparticles. Thermal dewetting of micro-patterned metal thin films provides etch masks for tapered nanostructures. This simple process also allows the formation of plasmonic surfaces with corrugated shapes. Rigorous coupled-wave analysis calculations provide design guidelines for tapered nanostructures on gallium phosphide substrates.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.30-34
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• 2014

Membrane distillation (MD) is a thermal driven separation process in which separation a hydrophobic membrane is a barrier for the liquid phase, letting the vapor phase pass through the membrane pores. Therefore, a porous and hydrophobic membrane should be used in membrane distillation. MD cannot work if water penetrates into the pores of the membrane (membrane wetting). Accordingly, it is necessary to prevent wetting of MD membranes and to remove water inside the pores of the wetted membranes if possible. In this context, our study aimed to develop methods to recover wetted membranes in MD processes. Poly-vinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membranes were used in this study. A laboratory-scale direct contact MD (DCMD) system was used to examine the effect of operating parameters on wetting. For dewetting the wetted membranes, specific techniques including the use of high temperature air were applied. The performances of the membranes before and after dewetting were compared in terms of flux, salt rejection and liquid entry pressure(LEP). The surface morphology of dewetted membrane was confirmed by scanning electron microscope (SEM).

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.346.1-346.1
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• 2016

본 연구에서는 열처리(Thermal Dewetting Process)와 빗각 증착(Oblique angle deposition)을 이용하여 비주기 서브파장 구조물을 마이크로 렌즈 형태의 유리 기판 상부에 제작하였다. 먼저 $2{\times}2cm2$ 크기의 유리 기판에 기존 리소그래피 공정으로 원기둥 형태의 감광액을 형성한다. 이후 Hot-plate로 $180^{\circ}C$에서 90초간 열을 가해 지름이 $20{\mu}m$인 반구형태로 변형시킨 뒤 반응성이온식각 공정을 진행하여 마이크로 렌즈를 제작한다. 렌즈의 표면에 나방 눈 구조를 형성하기 위해 전자빔 증착으로 15nm의 은 박막을 쌓은 뒤 $500^{\circ}C$에서 1분간 열처리 공정을 진행하였다. 열이 가해졌을 때 은 박막은 표면자유에너지를 최소화하기 위해 나노 크기의 덩어리진 입자 형태로 변화한다. 여기서 형성되는 나노입자의 크기가 렌즈 표면 중심에서 가장자리로 갈수록 작아진다는 것을 주사전자현미경을 통해 확인하였다. 증착 각도가 증가할수록 열처리 공정 후의 은 나노입자의 크기가 점점 작아진다는 것을 검증하기 위해 은 박막의 증착 각도를 $0^{\circ}$, $35^{\circ}$, $55^{\circ}$, $70^{\circ}$로 증착 후 열처리 공정을 진행하여 확인하였다. 비스듬하게 증착되어 형성된 박막은 다공형태로 낮은 밀도를 가지는데 이는 박막 두께 감소를 일으킨다. 따라서 증착 각도가 증가할수록 열처리 공정 후의 은 나노입자의 크기는 점점 작아진다. 이후 은 나노입자를 마스크로 하여 다시 반응성이온식각 공정을 진행하였으며 식각 후 나머지 은 나노입자들은 HNO3용액에서 1분간 처리하여 제거하였다. 제작된 구조물의 평균 직경과 크기는 각각 ~220nm 및 ~250nm인 것으로 확인하였다. 위와 같은 공정을 통해 다양한 크기를 가진 비주기 서브파장 구조물을 제작할 수 있다. 구조물의 주기가 파장 길이보다 짧을 경우 분산이 최소화되며 넓은 파장 대역에서 무반사 효과를 얻을 수 있다. 이 공정은 마스크를 통한 리소그래피의 한계를 극복할 수 있으며 여러 곡면형 표면에 적용가능한 장점이 있다. 또한 프리즘, 렌즈, 광섬유와 같은 광소자의 광투과율을 향상시키는데 이용될 수 있다.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.08a
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• pp.380-381
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• 2012

Bioinspired sea urchin-like structures were fabricated on silicon by inductively coupled plasma (ICP) etching using lens-like shape hexagonally patterned photoresist (PR) patterns and subsequent metal-assisted chemical etching (MaCE) [1]. The lens-like shape PR patterns with a diameter of 2 ${\mu}m$ were formed by conventional lithography method followed by thermal reflow process of PR patterns on a hotplate at $170^{\circ}C$ for 40 s. ICP etching process was carried out in an SF6 plasma ambient using an optimum etching conditions such as radio-frequency power of 50 W, ICP power of 25 W, SF6 flow rate of 30 sccm, process pressure of 10 mTorr, and etching time of 150 s in order to produce micron structure with tapered etch profile. 15 nm thick Ag film was evaporated on the samples using e-beam evaporator with a deposition rate of 0.05 nm/s. To form Ag nanoparticles (NPs), the samples were thermally treated (thermally dewetted) in a rapid thermal annealing system at $500^{\circ}C$ for 1 min in a nitrogen environment. The Ag thickness and thermal dewetting conditions were carefully chosen to obtain isolated Ag NPs. To fabricate needle-like nanostructures on both the micron structure (i.e., sea urchin-like structures) and flat surface of silicon, MaCE process, which is based on the strong catalytic activity of metal, was performed in a chemical etchant (HNO3: HF: H2O = 4: 1: 20) using Ag NPs at room temperature for 1 min. Finally, the residual Ag NPs were removed by immersion in a HNO3 solution. The fabricated structures after each process steps are shown in figure 1. It is well-known that the hierarchical micro- and nanostructures have efficient light harvesting properties [2-3]. Therefore, this fabrication technique for production of sea urchin-like structures is applicable to improve the performance of light harvesting devices.