• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.435-438
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• 2004

MOCVD is one of the major deposition techniques for Cu thin films and Ta-Si-N is one of promising barrier metal candidates for Cu with high thermal stability. Effects of hydrogen plasma pretreatment of the underlying Ta-Si-N film surface on the Cu nucleation in Cu MOCVD were investigated using scanning electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Auger electron emission spectrometry analyses. Cu nucleation in MOCVD is enhanced as the rf-power and the plasma exposure time are increased in the hydrogen plasma pretreatment. The optimal plasma treatment process condition is the rf-power of 40 Wand the plasma exposure time of 2 min. The hydrogen gas flow rate in the hydrogen plasma pretreatment process does not affect Cu nucleation much. The mechanism through which Cu nucleation is enhanced by the hydrogen plasma pretreatment of the Ta-Si-N film surface is that the nitrogen and oxygen atoms at the Ta-Si-N film surface are effectively removed by the plasma treatment. Consequently the chemical composition was changed from Ta-Si-N(O) into Ta-Si at the Ta-Si-N film surface, which is favorable for Cu nucleation.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.267-274
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• 2001

Removal of Cr, Ni and Cu impurities on Si surfaces using remote plasma-excited hydrogen was investigated. Si surfaces were contaminated intentionally by acetone with low purity. To determine the optimum process condition, remote plasma-excited hydrogen cleaning was conducted for various rf-powers and plasma exposure times. After remote plasma-excited hydrogen cleaning, Si surfaces were analyzed by Total X-ray Reflection Fluorescence(TXRF), Surface Photovoltage(SPV) and Atomic Forece Microscope(AFM). The concentrations of Cr, Ni and Cu impurities were reduced and the minority carrier lifetime increased after remote plasma-excited hydrogen. Also RMS roughness decreased by more than 30% after remote plasma-excited hydrogen cleaning. AFM analysis results also show that remote plasma-excited hydrogen cleaning causes no damage to the Si surface. TXRF analysis results show that remote plasma-excited hydrogen cleaning is effective in eliminating metallic impurities from Si surface only if it is performed under an optimum process conditions. The removal mechanism of the Cr, Ni and Cu impurities using remote plasma-excited hydrogen treatments is proposed to be the lift-off during removal of underlying chemical oxides.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.313-318
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• 2004

Vertically-aligned and uniformly-distributed CuO nanowires were formed on copper-coated Si substrates by wet chemical process, immersing them in a hot alkaline solution. The effects of hydrogen plasma treatment on the field emission characteristics of CuO nanowires were investigated. It was found that hydrogen plasma treatment enhanced the field emission properties of CuO nanowires by showing a decrease in turn-on voltage, and an increase in emission current density, and stability of current-voltage curves. However, the excessive hydrogen plasma treatment made the I-V curves unstable. It was confirmed by XPS (X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy) analysis that hydrogen plasma treatment deoxidized CuO nanowires, thereby the work function of the nanowires decreased from 4.35 eV (CuO) to 4.1 eV (Cu). It is thought that the decrease in the work function enhanced the field emission characteristics. It is well-known that the lower the work function, the better the field emission characteristics. The results suggest that the hydrogen plasma treatment is very effective in achieving enhanced field emission properties of the CuO nanowires, and there may exist an optimal hydrogen plasma treatment condition.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.08a
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• pp.95-95
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• 2010

An apparatus for generating flames and more particularly the microwave plasma burner for generating high-temperature large-volume plasma flame was presented. The plasma burner was composed of micvrowave transmission lines, a field applicator, discharge tube, coal and gas supply systems, and a reactor. The plasma burner is operated by injecting coal powders into a 2.45 GHz microwave plasma torch and by mixing the resultant gaseous hydrogen and carbon compounds with plasma-forming gas. We in this work used air, oxygen, steam, and their mixtures as a discharge gas or oxidant gas. The microwave plasma torch can instantaneously vaporize and decompose the hydrogen and carbon containing fuels. It was observed that the flame volume of the burner was more than 50 times that of the torch plasma. The preliminary experiments were carried out by measuring the temperature profiles of flames along the radial and axial directions. We also investigated the characteristics for coal combustion and gasification by analyzing the byproducts from the exit of reactor. As expected, various byproducts such as hydrogen, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, etc. were detected. It is expected that such burner cab be applied to coal gasification, hydrocarbon reforming, industrial boiler of power plants, etc.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1996.07c
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• pp.1532-1535
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• 1996

Diamond-like carbon (DLC) films have been prepared by a widely-used plasma CVD with an rf (13.56MHz) plasma of $CH_4$ gas. The hydrogen incorporated in DLC films plays an important role of determining the film properties, but its exact role has not been clear. In this study, the effect of hydrogen on the film properties of DLC has been examined by adding the hydrogen gas to the $CH_4$ gas during deposition and by exposing the prepared film to the hydrogen plasma. As the content of additive hydrogen gas increases, the density and hardness of the film increase, but the growth rate decreases. The FT-IR spectroscopy results show that the number of C-H bonds decreases with increasing the hydrogen gas. Also, the variation in the position of "G" and "D" peaks due to additive hydrogen, which has been measured by the Raman spectroscopy, indicates of $sp^3$ fraction.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.6-11
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• 2000

The hydrogen plasma treatment of silicon wafers in the reactive ion-etching mode was studied for the application to silicon-on-insulator wafers which were prepared using the wafer bonding technique. The chemical reactions of hydrogen plasma with surface were used for both surface activation and removal of surface contaminants. As a result of exposure of silicon wafers to the plasma, an active oxide layer was found on the surface. This layer was rendered hydrophilic. The surface roughness and morphology were examined as functions of the plasma exposing time and power. In addition, the surface became smoother with the shorter plasma exposing time and power. The value of initial surface energy estimated by the crack propagation method was 506 mJ/㎡, which was up to about three times higher as compared to the case of conventional direct using the wet RCA cleaning method.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2007.05b
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• pp.2918-2922
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• 2007

This is a report of a feasibility study on the reduction of harmful substances such as particulate matters and nitric oxides emitted from diesel engines by using a plasma reforming system that can generate hydrogen-rich gas. In this paper, an exhaust reduction mechanism of the non-thermal plasma reaction was investigated to perform its efficiency and characteristics on producing hydrogen-rich gas. Firstly, we explain briefly the chemistry of hydrocarbon reforming. The experimental system is showed in the second part. Finally, we demonstrate the feasibility of producing hydrogen using non-thermal plasma. The experimental results are focused on the influence of the different operating parameters (air ratio, inlet flow rates, voltage) on the reformer efficiency and the composition of the produced gas.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.34 no.11
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• pp.3367-3371
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• 2013

MgO nanorods were fabricated by the thermal evaporation of $Mg_3N_2$. The influence of ZnO sheathing and hydrogen plasma exposure on the photoluminescence (PL) of the MgO nanorods was studied. PL measurements of the ZnO-sheathed MgO nanorods showed two main emission bands: the near band edge emission band centered at ~380 nm and the deep level emission band centered at ~590 nm both of which are characteristic of ZnO. The near band edge emission from the ZnO-sheathed MgO nanorods was enhanced with increasing the ZnO shell layer thickness. The near band edge emission from the ZnO-sheathed MgO nanorods appeared to be enhanced further by hydrogen plasma irradiation. The underlying mechanisms for the enhancement of the NBE emission from the MgO nanorods by ZnO sheathing and hydrogen plasma exposure are discussed.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.375-380
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• 2011

This study evaluated whether fluoride treatment can affect recovery of the irregularity of enamel surface after tooth whitening with a high concentration of hydrogen peroxide (HP) activated by plasma arc light. A total of 36 bovine teeth stained with coke were used in this experiment. The specimens were classified into following three groups (two different commercial plasma arc groups and a control group without light curing source): (1) 35% HP gel only, (2): 35% HP gel and Plasma arc A, and (3) 35% HP gel and Plasma arc B. To measure color changes and surface morphologies before and after the bleaching, colorimeter and scanning electron microscopy were used, respectively. When the specimens were bleached with hydrogen peroxide and plasma arc lights, the bleaching effect was greater than when only hydrogen peroxide gels were used (Kruskal-Wallis test, p<0.05). In addition, plasma arc B showed the more color changes than plasma arc A (Bonferroni post-hoc test, p<0.05). The surfaces of the teeth treated with fluoride gel after the whitening treatment came to be smooth. Therefore, the results of this study suggested that the fluoride application for patients who got tooth whitening therapy with a high concentration of hydrogen peroxide gels activated by plasma arc light will be effective to recover rough enamel surfaces.

• 한국연소학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.64-68
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• 2005

Methane reforming processes to obtain hydrogen were investigated experimentally by using atmospheric plasma source. Among possible reforming processes, such as a $CO_2$ reforming(dry reforming), a partial oxidation (POx), a steam reforming(SR), and a steam reforming with oxygen(SRO or auto-thermal reforming), partial oxidation and the steam reforming with oxygen were considered. We choose a rotating arc plasma as an atmospheric plasma source, since it shows the best performances in our preliminary tests in terms of a methane conversion, a hydrogen production, and a power consumption. Then, the effects of a feeding flow-rate, an electrical power input to a plasma reaction, an $O_2/C$ ratio and a steam to carbon ratio in the case of SRO on the reforming characteristics were observed systematically. As results, at a certain condition almost 100% of methane conversion was obtained and we could achieve the same hydrogen production rate by consuming a half of electrical power which was used by the best results for other researchers.