• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.02a
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• pp.141-141
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• 2010

The effect of thermal anneal on the characteristics of structural properties and the enhancement of luminescence and photovoltaic (PV) characteristics of silicon-rich silicon-nitride films were investigated. By using an ultra high vacuum ion beam sputtering deposition, B-doped silicon-rich silicon-nitride (SRSN) thin films, with excess silicon content of 15 at. %, on P-doped (n-type) Si substrate was fabricated, sputtering a highly B doped Si wafer with a BN chip by N plasma. In order to examine the influence of thermal anneal, films were then annealed at different temperature up to $1100^{\circ}C$ under $N_2$ environment. Raman, X-ray diffraction, and X-ray photoemission spectroscopy did not show any reliable evidence of amorphous or crystalline Si clusters allowing us concluding that nearly no Si nano-cluster could be formed through the precipitation of excess Si from SRSN matrix during thermal anneal. Instead, results of Fourier transform infrared and X-ray photoemission spectroscopy clearly indicated that defective, amorphous Si-N matrix of films was changed to be well-ordered thanks to high temperature anneal. The measurement of spectral ellipsometry in UV-visible range was carried out and we found that the optical absorption edge of film was shifted to higher energy as the anneal temperature increased as the results of thermal anneal induced formation of $Si_3N_4$-like matrix. These are consistent with the observation that higher visible photoluminescence, which is likely due to the presence of Si-N bonds, from anneals at higher temperature. Based on these films, PV cells were fabricated by the formation of front/back metal electrodes. For all cells, typical I-V characteristic of p-n diode junction was observed. We also tried to measure PV properties using a solar-simulator and confirmed successful operation of PV devices. Carrier transport mechanism depending on anneal temperature and the implication of PV cells based on SRSN films were also discussed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.08a
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• pp.245.2-245.2
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• 2013

Solution processed organic photovoltaic devices have relatively less attention compared to polymer photovoltaic devices even though they have high possibility to be developed because they have both advantages of polymer and organic, such as solution processable, no synthetic batch dependence of photovoltaic performance, high purity and high charge carrier mobility as well as relatively high efficiency (~7%). In addition, solution processed organic photovoltaic devices have an advantage of easiness to study the relationship between the molecular structure and photovoltaic performance due to its simple structure. In this work, five isoindigo based low band gap donor-acceptor-donor (D-A-D) small molecules with different electron donating strength were synthesized for investigating the relationship between the molecular structure and photovoltaic performance, especially, investigating the effects of different electron donating effect of donor group in isoindigo backbone to photovoltaic device performance. The variation of electron donating strength of donor group strongly affected the optical, thermal, electrochemical and photovoltaic device performances of isoindigo organic materials. The highest power conversion efficiency of ~3.2% was realized in bulk heterojuction photovoltaic device consisted of the ID3T as donor and PC70BM as acceptor. This work demonstrates the great potential of isoindigo moieties as electron deficient units as well as guideline for synthesis of donor-acceptor-donor (D-A-D) small molecules for realizing highly efficient solution processed organic photovoltaic devices.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.234-238
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• 2004

A stoichiometric mixture of evaporating materials for $CuInSe_2$ single crystal thin films was prepared from horizontal electric furnace. To obtain the single crystal thin films, $CuInSe_2$ mixed crystal was deposited on thoroughly etched semi-insulating GaAs(100) substrate by the hot wall epitaxy (HWE) system. The source and substrate temperatures were $620^{\circ}C$ and $410^{\circ}C$, respectively. The crystalline structure of the single crystal thin films was investigated by the photoluminescence and double crystal X-ray diffraction (DCXD). The carrier density and mobility of $CuInSe_2$ single crystal thin films measured with Hall effect by van der Pauw method are $9.62{\times}10^{l6}\;cm^{-3}$ and $296\;cm^2/V{\cdot}s$ at 293 K, respectively. The temperature dependence of the energy band gap of the $CuInSe_2$ obtained from the absorption spectra was well described by the Varshni's relation, $E_g(T)\;=\;1.1851\;eV\;-\;(8.99{\times}10^{-4}\;eV/K)T^2/(T+153K)$. The crystal field and the spin-orbit splitting energies for the valence band of the $CuInSe_2$ have been estimated to be 0.0087 eV and 0.2329 eV at 10K, respectively, by means of the photocurrent spectra and the Hopfield quasicubic model. These results indicate that the splitting of the ${\Delta}_{so}$ definitely exists in the $\Gamma_6$ states of the valence band of the $CuInSe_2$. The three photocurrent peaks observed at 10K are ascribed to the $A_1-$, $B_1-$, and $C_1$-exciton peaks for n = 1.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.1068-1072
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• 2018

In underwater communications, there are many challenges due to energy limitations, long propagation delay, low data rate, and high power loss, unlike terrestrial RF communications. Especially, the propagation delay of underwater acoustic channel is five orders of magnitude higher than in electro-magnetic terrestrial channels due to the low speed of sound(1,500m/s). Thus, the MAC protocols for terrestrial communications are not suitable for underwater network. In this paper, we studied the considerations for MAC protocol in underwater acoustic channel. Here, we concentrated on CSMA based MAC protocols. From the results, we confirmed that the number of control packets has an important effect on the performance in underwater environment. These results would be useful in designing MAC protocols for underwater acoustic communications.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.31 no.11
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• pp.619-625
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• 2021

Cu₂ZnSn(S,Se)₄ (CZTSSe) based thin-film solar cells have attracted growing attention because of their earth-abundant and non-toxic elements. However, because of their large open-circuit voltage (V_oc)-deficit, CZTSSe solar cells exhibit poor device performance compared to well-established Cu(In,Ga)(S,Se)₂ (CIGS) and CdTe based solar cells. One of the main causes of this large V_oc-deficit is poor absorber properties for example, high band tailing properties, defects, secondary phases, carrier recombination, etc. In particular, the fabrication of absorbers using physical methods results in poor surface morphology, such as pin-holes and voids. To overcome this problem and form large and homogeneous CZTSSe grains, CZTSSe based absorber layers are prepared by a sputtering technique with different RTA conditions. The temperature is varied from 510 ℃ to 540 ℃ during the rapid thermal annealing (RTA) process. Further, CZTSSe thin films are examined with X-ray diffraction, X-ray fluorescence, Raman spectroscopy, IPCE, Energy dispersive spectroscopy and Scanning electron microscopy techniques. The present work shows that Cu-based secondary phase formation can be suppressed in the CZTSSe absorber layer at an optimum RTA condition.

• The Journal of the Korea institute of electronic communication sciences
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.1105-1112
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• 2022

Field data monitoring systems such as renewable energy generation and smart farm integrated control are developing from PC and server to mobile first, and various wireless communication and application services have emerged with the development of IoT technology. Low-power wide-area networks are services optimized for low-power, low-capacity, and low-speed data transmission, and data collected in the field is transmitted to designated storage servers or cloud-based data platforms, enabling data monitoring. In this paper, we implement an IoT repeater that collects field data with a single device and transmits it to a wireless carrier cloud data flat using a low-power wide-area network, and a monitoring app using it. Using this, the system configuration is simpler, the cost of deployment and operation is lower, and effective data accumulation is possible.

• Natural Product Sciences
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.45-52
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• 2022

The identification of Plasmodium falciparum enoyl acyl-carrier protein reductase (pfENR) is considered as a potential biological target against malaria. Trema orientalis is considered a rich source of phytochemicals useful in malaria treatment. This study evaluated the in-vitro inhibitory activity of the extract and isolated compounds of T. orientalis leaf; the isolated compounds and the analogues of the most active compound were subjected to in-silico molecular docking studies on pfENR. The methanolic extract of T. orientalis was subjected to repeated chromatographic separation which led to the isolation of some compounds. The isolated compounds from the plant were examined for their antimalarial activity using β-hematin inhibition assay. Virtual screening via molecular docking and ADMET studies were conducted to gain insight into the mechanism of binding of ligand and to identify effective pfENR inhibitors. The isolated compounds and the analogues of the most active isolates were gotten from PubChem library for use in docking study. Hexacosanol and β-sitosterol showed inhibition of the β-hematin formation. The docking results showed that hexacosanol, β-sitosterol and the analogues of β-sitosterol displayed binding energy ranging between -6.1 kcal/mol and -11.6 kcal/mol. Sitosterol glucoside has the highest docking score. Some of the ligands showed more binding affinity than known bioactive compounds used as reference. Analogues of β-sitosterol has been shown to be potential inhibitors of pfENR, therefore, the findings from this study suggest that sitosterol glucoside and ergosterol peroxide could act as antimalarial agents after further lead optimisation investigations.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.208-218
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• 2023

Photocatalysts are advanced materials which accelerate the photoreaction by providing ordinary reactions with other pathways. The catalysts have various advantages, such as low-cost, low operating temperature and pressure, and long-term use. They are applied to environmental and energy field, including the air and water purification, water splitting for hydrogen production, sterilization and self-cleaning surfaces. However, commercial photocatalysts only absorb ultraviolet light between 100 and 400 nm of wavelength which comprises only 5% in sunlight due to the wide band gap. In addition, rapid recombination of electron-hole pairs reduces the photocatalytic performance. Recently, studies on blackening photocatalysts by laser, thermal, and plasma treatments have been conducted to enhance the absorption of visible light and photocatalytic activity. The disordered structures could yield mid-gap states and vacancies could cause charge carrier trapping. Herein, liquid phase plasma (LPP) is adopted to synthesize Ag-doped black ZnO for the utilization of visible-light. The physical and chemical characteristics of the synthesized photocatalysts are analyzed by SEM/EDS, XRD, XPS and the optical properties of them are investigated using UV/Vis DRS and PL analyses. Lastly, the photocatalytic activity was evaluated using methylene blue as a pollutant.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.7
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• pp.2628-2641
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• 2023

Nuclear safety is the lifeline for the development and application of nuclear energy. In severe accidents of pressurized water reactor (PWR), aerosols, as the main carrier of fission products, are suspended in the containment vessel, posing a potential threat of radioactive contamination caused by leakage into the environment. The gas-phase aerosols suspended in the containment will settle onto the wall or sump water through the natural deposition mechanism, thereby reducing atmospheric radioactivity. Aiming at the low accuracy of the aerosol model in the ISAA code, this paper improves the natural deposition model of aerosol in the containment. The aerosol dynamic shape factor was introduced to correct the natural deposition rate of non-spherical aerosols. Moreover, the gravity, Brownian diffusion, thermophoresis and diffusiophoresis deposition models were improved. In addition, ABCOVE, AHMED and LACE experiments were selected to validate and evaluate the improved ISAA code. According to the calculation results, the improved model can more accurately simulate the peak aerosol mass and respond to the influence of the containment pressure and temperature on the natural deposition rate of aerosols. At the same time, it can significantly improve the calculation accuracy of the residual mass of aerosols in the containment. The performance of improved ISAA can meet the requirements for analyzing the natural deposition behavior of aerosol in containment of advanced PWRs in severe accident. In the future, further optimization will be made to address the problems found in the current aerosol model.

• The Journal of the Korea institute of electronic communication sciences
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.39-46
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• 2024

In this study, GTZO(Ga-Ti-Zn-O) thin films were deposited at various working pressures (1~7mTorr) by RF magnetron sputtering to examine the structural, electrical, and optical properties. All GTZO thin films exhibited c-axis preferential growth regardless of working pressure, the GTZO thin film deposited at 1mTorr showed the most excellent crystallinity having 0.38˚ of FWHM. The average transmittance in the visible light region (400~800nm) showed 80% or more regardless of the working pressure. We could observed the Burstein-Moss effect that carrier concentration decrease with the increase of working pressure and thus the energy band gap is narrowed. Figure of merits of GTZO thin film deposited at 1mTorr showed the highest value of 9.08 × 103 Ω-1·cm-1, in this case resistivity and average transmittance in the visible light region were 5.12 × 10-4 Ω·cm and 80.64%, respectively.