• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.56 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2023

In this study, we explore the morphological and geochemical characteristics for 440 manganese nodules collected from two different water depths [ARA12B-St52 (150 m, n = 239) and ARA12B-St58i (73 m, n = 201)] on the continental shelf of the East Siberian Sea from the ARA12B expedition in 2021. We also discussed the variations in the characteristics of manganese nodules with varying water depths in the Arctic Sea. The sizes of the nodules are generally greater than 3 cm at both sites. However, there is an obvious difference in the morphology with water depths. For the nodules collected at 150 m, brown-black colored tabular, tube, and ellipsoidal shapes with a rough surface texture are dominant. On the other hand, yellow-brown tabular shapes with a smooth surface texture are common for the nodules collected at 73 m. Furthermore, the slope of trend line between size and weight is significantly different at both sites: particularly, the slopes of nodules at 150 and 73 m are 1.60 and 0.84, respectively. This indicates the difference in the internal structure, porosity, and constituting elements between both nodules. Micro X-ray Flourescence (µ-XRF) results clearly demonstrate that the internal textures and chemical compositions are different with water depths. The nodules at 150 m are composed of a thick Mn-layer and a thin Fe-layer centered on the nucleus, while the nodules at 73 m are alternately grown with thin Mn- and Fe- layers around the nucleus. The average chemical compositions obtained by µ-XRF are 40.6 wt% Mn, 5.2 wt% Fe, and 7.9 Mn/Fe ratio at 150 m, and 10.3 wt% Mn, 19.0 wt% Fe, and 0.6 Mn/Fe ratio at 73 m. The chemical compositions of the nodules at 150 m are similar to those of nodules from the Peru Basin in the Pacific Ocean, while the compositions of the nodules at 73 m are similar to those of nodules from the Cook Islands or the Baltic Sea. The observed morphological and geochemical characteristics of the nodules show a clear difference at the two sites, which indicates that the aqueous conditions and formation processes of the nodules in the Arctic Sea vary with the water depths.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.16-22
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• 2008

We studied plasma etching of polycarbonate in $O_2/SF_6$, $O_2/N_2$ and $O_2/CH_4$. A capacitively coupled plasma system was employed for the research. For patterning, we used a photolithography method with UV exposure after coating a photoresist on the polycarbonate. Main variables in the experiment were the mixing ratio of $O_2$ and other gases, and RF chuck power. Especially, we used only a mechanical pump for in order to operate the system. The chamber pressure was fixed at 100 mTorr. All of surface profilometry, atomic force microscopy and scanning electron microscopy were used for characterization of the etched polycarbonate samples. According to the results, $O_2/SF_6$ plasmas gave the higher etch rate of the polycarbonate than pure $O_2$ and $SF_6$ plasmas. For example, with maintaining 100W RF chuck power and 100 mTorr chamber pressure, 20 sccm $O_2$ plasma provided about $0.4{\mu}m$/min of polycarbonate etch rate and 20 sccm $SF_6$ produced only $0.2{\mu}m$/min. However, the mixed plasma of 60 % $O_2$ and 40 % $SF_6$ gas flow rate generated about $0.56{\mu}m$ with even low -DC bias induced compared to that of $O_2$. More addition of $SF_6$ to the mixture reduced etch of polycarbonate. The surface roughness of etched polycarbonate was roughed about 3 times worse measured by atomic force microscopy. However examination with scanning electron microscopy indicated that the surface was comparable to that of photoresist. Increase of RF chuck power raised -DC bias on the chuck and etch rate of polycarbonate almost linearly. The etch selectivity of polycarbonate to photoresist was about 1:1. The meaning of these results was that the simple capacitively coupled plasma system can be used to make a microstructure on polymer with $O_2/SF_6$ plasmas. This result can be applied to plasma processing of other polymers.