• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.358-364
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• 2009

We investigated the growth of ZnO thin films with prominent emission characteristics through minimizing the formation of defects by using pulsed laser deposition (PLD). To do so, the ZnO films were deposited on sapphire(0001) substrates at the substrate temperature of $400-850^{\circ}C$ and then the variation of their structural and optical properties were analyzed by x-ray diffraction, atomic force microscope and photoluminescence. As a result, all ZnO films were grown with c-axis preferential orientation irrespective of the substrate temperature. However, the crystallinity and stress state were dependent on the substrate temperature and the ZnO film deposited at $600^{\circ}C$ showed the best surface morphology and crystallinity with nearly no strain. And also this film exhibited outstanding emission characteristics from the viewpoint of full width half maximum of UV emission peak as well as visible emission due to defects. These results indicate that the emission characteristics of the ZnO films are strongly related to their structural characteristics influenced by substrate temperature. Consequently, ZnO films with strong UV emission and nearly no visible emission, which are applicable to UV emission devices, could be grown at the substrate temperature of $600^{\circ}C$ by PLD.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.30 no.8
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• pp.406-412
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• 2020

SrMoO₄:RE³⁺ (RE=Dy, Sm, Tb, Eu, Dy/Sm) phosphors are prepared by co-precipitation method. The effects of the type and the molar ratio of activator ions on the structural, morphological, and optical properties of the phosphor particles are investigated. X-ray diffraction data reveal that all the phosphors have a tetragonal system with a main (112) diffraction peak. The emission spectra of the SrMoO₄ phosphors doped with several activator ions indicate different multicolor emissions: strong yellow-emitting light at 573 nm for Dy³⁺, red light at 643 nm for Sm³⁺, green light at 545 nm for Tb³⁺, and reddish orange light at 614 nm for Eu³⁺ activator ions. The Dy³⁺ singly-doped SrMoO₄ phosphor shows two dominant emission peaks at 479 and 573 nm corresponding to the ⁴F_9/2→⁶H_15/2 magnetic dipole transition and ⁴F_9/2→⁶H_13/2 electric dipole transition, respectively. For Dy³⁺ and Sm³⁺ doubly-doped SrMoO₄ phosphors, two kinds of emission peaks are observed. The two emission peaks at 479 and 573 nm are attributed to ⁴F_9/2→⁶H_15/2 and ⁴F_9/2→⁶H_13/2 transitions of Dy³⁺ and two emission bands centered at 599 and 643 nm are ascribed to ⁴G_5/2→⁶H_7/2 and ⁴G_5/2→⁶H_9/2 transitions of Sm³⁺. As the concentration of Sm³⁺ increases from 1 to 5 mol%, the intensities of the emission bands of Dy³⁺ gradually decrease; those of Sm³⁺ slowly increase and reach maxima at 5 mol% of Sm³⁺ ions, and then rapidly decrease with increasing molar ratio of Sm³⁺ ions due to the concentration quenching effect. Fluorescent security inks based on as-prepared phosphors are synthesized and designed to demonstrate an anti-counterfeiting application.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.339-344
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• 2017

A series of $CaNb_2O_6:Dy^{3+}$, $CaNb_2O_6$:$Eu^{3+}$ and $CaNb_2O_6:Dy^{3+}$, $Eu^{3+}$ phosphors were prepared by solid-state reaction process. The effects of activator ions on the structural, morphological and optical properties of the phosphor particles were investigated. XRD patterns showed that all the phosphors had an orthorhombic system with a main (131) diffraction peak. For the $Dy^{3+}$-doped $CaNb_2O_6$ phosphor powders, the excitation spectra consisted of one broad band centered at 267 nm in the range of 210-310 nm and three weak peaks; the main emission band showed an intense yellow band at 575 nm that corresponded to the $^4F_{9/2}{\rightarrow}^6H_{13/2}$ transition of $Dy^{3+}$ ions. For the $Eu^{3+}$-doped $CaNb_2O_6$ phosphor, the emission spectra under ultraviolet excitation at 263 nm exhibited one strong reddish-orange band centered at 612 nm and four weak bands at 536, 593, 650, and 705 nm. For the $Dy^{3+}$ and $Eu^{3+}$-codoped $CaNb_2O_6$ phosphor powders, blue and yellow emission bands due to the $^4F_{9/2}{\rightarrow}^6H_{15/2}$ and $^4F_{9/2}{\rightarrow}^6H_{13/2}$ transitions of $Dy^{3+}$ ions and a main reddish-orange emission line at 612 nm resulting from the $^5D_0{\rightarrow}^7F_2$ transition of $Eu^{3+}$ ions were observed. As the concentration of $Eu^{3+}$ ions increased from 1 mol% to 10 mol%, the intensities of the emissions due to $Dy^{3+}$ ions rapidly decreased, while those of the emission bands originating from the $Eu^{3+}$ ions gradually increased, reached maxima at 10 mol%, and then slightly decreased at 15 mol% of $Eu^{3+}$. These results indicate that white light emission can be achieved by modulating the concentrations of the $Eu^{3+}$ ions incorporated into the $Dy^{3+}$-doped $CaNb_2O_6$ host lattice.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.08a
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• pp.97-97
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• 2013

Recently, Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)4 (CZTSS), which is one of the In- and Ga- free absorber materials, has been attracted considerable attention as a new candidate for use as an absorber material in thin film solar cells. The CZTSS-based absorber material has outstanding characteristics such as band gap energy of 1.0 eV to 1.5 eV, high absorption coefficient on the order of 104 cm-1, and high theoretical conversion efficiency of 32.2% in thin film solar cells. Despite these promising characteristics, research into CZTSS based thin film solar cells is still incomprehensive and related reports are quite few compared to those for CIGS thin film solar cells, which show high efficiency of over 20%. I will briefly overview the recent technological development of CZTSS thin film solar cells and then introduce our research results mainly related to sputter based process. CZTSS thin film solar cells are prepared by sulfurization of stacked both metallic and sulfide precursors. Sulfurization process was performed in both furnace annealing system and rapid thermal processing system using S powder as well as 5% diluted H2S gas source at various annealing temperatures ranging from $520^{\circ}C$ to $580^{\circ}C$. Structural, optical, microstructural, and electrical properties of absorber layers were characterized using XRD, SEM, TEM, UV-Vis spectroscopy, Hall-measurement, TRPL, etc. The effects of processing parameters, such as composition ratio, sulfurization pressure, and sulfurization temperature on the properties of CZTSS absorber layers will be discussed in detail. CZTSS thin film solar cell fabricated using metallic precursors shows maximum cell efficiency of 6.9% with Jsc of 25.2 mA/cm2, Voc of 469 mV, and fill factor of 59.1% and CZTS thin film solar cell using sulfide precursors shows that of 4.5% with Jsc of 19.8 mA/cm2, Voc of 492 mV, and fill factor of 46.2%. In addition, other research activities in our lab related to the formation of CZTS absorber layers using solution based processes such as electro-deposition, chemical solution deposition, nano-particle formation will be introduced briefly.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.08a
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• pp.174-175
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• 2012

(In, Ga) N-based III-nitride semiconductor materials have been viewed as the most promising materials for the applications of blue and green light emitting devices such as light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and laser diodes. Although the InGaN alloy can have wide range of visible wavelength by changing the In composition, it is very hard to grow high quality epilayers of In-rich InGaN because of the thermal instability as well as the large lattice and thermal mismatches. In order to avoid phase separation of InGaN, various kinds of structures of InGaN have been studied. If high-quality In-rich InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well (MQW) structures are available, it is expected to achieve highly efficient phosphor-free white LEDs. In this study, we proposed a novel InGaN double hetero-structure grown on GaN nano-pyramids to generate broad-band red-color emission with high quantum efficiency. In this work, we systematically studied the optical properties of the InGaN pyramid structures. The nano-sized hexagonal pyramid structures were grown on the n-type GaN template by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. SiNx mask was formed on the n-type GaN template with uniformly patterned circle pattern by laser holography. GaN pyramid structures were selectively grown on the opening area of mask by lateral over-growth followed by growth of InGaN/GaN double hetero-structure. The bird's eye-view scanning electron microscope (SEM) image shows that uniform hexagonal pyramid structures are well arranged. We showed that the pyramid structures have high crystal quality and the thickness of InGaN is varied along the height of pyramids via transmission electron microscope. Because the InGaN/GaN double hetero-structure was grown on the nano-pyramid GaN and on the planar GaN, simultaneously, we investigated the comparative study of the optical properties. Photoluminescence (PL) spectra of nano-pyramid sample and planar sample measured at 10 K. Although the growth condition were exactly the same for two samples, the nano-pyramid sample have much lower energy emission centered at 615 nm, compared to 438 nm for planar sample. Moreover, nano-pyramid sample shows broad-band spectrum, which is originate from structural properties of nano-pyramid structure. To study thermal activation energy and potential fluctuation, we measured PL with changing temperature from 10 K to 300 K. We also measured PL with changing the excitation power from 48 ${\mu}W$ to 48 mW. We can discriminate the origin of the broad-band spectra from the defect-related yellow luminescence of GaN by carrying out PL excitation experiments. The nano-pyramid structure provided highly efficient broad-band red-color emission for the future applications of phosphor-free white LEDs.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.63 no.6
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• pp.453-458
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• 2019

Synthesis of ZnCo₂O₃ oxide is performed by sol-gel method via nitrate-citrate route. Powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) study shows monoclinic unit cell having lattice parameters: a = 5.721(1) Å, b = 8.073(2) Å, c = 5.670(1) Å, β = 93.221(8)°, space group P_2/m and Z = 4. Average crystallite sizes determined by Scherrer equation are the range ~14-32 nm, whereas SEM micrographs show nano-micro meter size particles formed in ZnCo₂O₃. Endothermic peak at ~798 K in the Differential scanning calorimetric (DSC) trace without weight loss could be due to structural transformation and the endothermic peak ~1143 K with weight loss is due to reversible loss of O₂ in air atmosphere. Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis profile shows the presence of elements Zn, Co and O which indicates the purity of the sample. Magnetic measurements in the range of +12 kOe to -12 kOe at 10 K, 77 K, 120 K and at 300 K by PPMS-II Physical Property Measurement System (PPMS) shows hysteresis loops having very low values of the coercivity and retentivity which indicates the weakly ferromagnetic nature of the oxide. Observed X-band EPR isotropic lineshapes at 300 K and 77 K show positive g-shift at g_iso ~2.230 and g_iso ~2.217, respectively which is in agreement with the presence of paramagnetic site Co²⁺(3d⁷) in the oxide. DC conductivity value of 2.875 ×10^-8 S/cm indicates very weakly semiconducting nature of ZnCo₂O₃ at 300 K. DRS absorption bands ~357 nm, ~572 nm, ~619 nm and ~654 nm are due to the d-d transitions ⁴T_1g(⁴F)→²E_g(²G), ⁴T_1g(⁴F)→⁴T_1g(⁴P), ⁴T_1g(⁴F)→⁴A_2g(⁴F), ⁴T_1g(⁴F)→⁴T_2g(⁴F), respectively in octahedral ligand field around Co²⁺ ions. Direct band gap energy, E_g~ 1.5 eV in the oxide is obtained by extrapolating the linear part of the Tauc plot to the energy axis indicates fairly strong semiconducting nature of ZnCo₂O₃.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.262-266
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• 2010

ZnO nanostructures were grown on an Au seed layer by a hydrothermal method. The Au seed layer was deposited by ion sputter on a Si (100) substrate, and then the ZnO nanostructures were grown with different precursor concentrations ranging from 0.01 M to 0.3M at $150^{\circ}C$ and different growth temperatures ranging from $100^{\circ}C$ to $250^{\circ}C$ with 0.3 M of precursor concentration. FE-SEM (field-emission scanning electron microscopy), XRD (X-ray diffraction), and PL (photoluminescence) were carried out to investigate the structural and optical properties of the ZnO nanostructures. The different morphologies are shown with different growth conditions by FE-SEM images. The density of the ZnO nanostructures changed significantly as the growth conditions changed. The density increased as the precursor concentration increased. The ZnO nanostructures are barely grown at $100^{\circ}C$ and the ZnO nanostructure grown at $150^{\circ}C$ has the highest density. The XRD pattern shows the ZnO (100), ZnO (002), ZnO (101) peaks, which indicated the ZnO structure has a wurtzite structure. The higher intensity and lower FWHM (full width at half maximum) of the ZnO peaks were observed at a growth temperature of $150^{\circ}C$, which indicated higher crystal quality. A near band edge emission (NBE) and a deep level emission (DLE) were observed at the PL spectra and the intensity of the DLE increased as the density of the ZnO nanostructures increased.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
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• v.8 no.6
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• pp.374-379
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• 1998

$Mn_1-xCr_xPt_3$ alloy films have been prepared by depositing (Mn, Cr)/Pt multilayers using a rf magnetron sputterer followed by heat treatment. Small and wide angle x-ray diffractometry, magnetic hysteresis loops and Kerr rotation angle spectra of the films have been measured and used to investigate structural, magnetic and magneto-optic properties of the films. The films had a crystal structure of ordered AuCu$_3$ type and the strong preferred orientation of a (111)plane parallel to the film surface. The saturation magnetization of the films was decreased with Cr content reaching almost zero near x=0.58 and then increased for further increasement of Cr content up to x=0.77 over that stayed almost constant. This indicated that Cr atoms were antiferromagnetically coupled with Mn atoms. The magnetic easy axis of MnPt$_3$(x=0) film was parallel to the film surface but those of the films with x$\geq$0.58 increased as Cr content increased reaching about 4 kOe at x=1(CrPt$_3$). The dependence of the Kerr rotation angle on the Cr content was similar to that of the saturation magnetization on the Cr content. The films with x=0.77 and x=1 showed the larger Kerr rotation angle at the wavelengths of near infrared compared to the magneto-optic recording medium, TbFeCo, currently being used.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.224-229
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• 2010

Indium oxide $(In_2O_3)$ thin films have been prepared on glass substrate by using radio-frequency reactive magnetron sputtering with changing the oxygen flow ratio. The substrate temperature was kept at a fixed value of $400^{\circ}C$, and the sputtering gas and reactive gas were supplied with argon and oxygen, respectively. The oxygen partial flow ratio was varied by controlling the amount of oxygen with respect to the total mixed gases, 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, and 50%. The optical, electrical, and structural properties of the deposited thin films were investigated by using ultraviolet-visible-near infrared spectrophotometer, Hall measurement, and X-ray diffractometer and scanning electron microscopy. The $In_2O_3$ thin film deposited at 20% of oxygen flow ratio showed an average transmittance of 86% in the wavelength range of 430~1,100 nm, an electrical resistivity of $1.1{\times}10^{-1}{\Omega}cm$. The results show that the transparent conducting films with optimum conditions can be achieved by controlling the oxygen flow ratio.

• Composites Research
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.48-52
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• 2023

Fiber-reinforced composites have anisotropic material properties, so the mechanical properties of composite structures can vary depending on the stacking sequence. Therefore, it is essential to design the proper stacking sequence of composite structures according to the functional requirements. However, depending on the manufacturing condition or the shape of the structure, there are many cases where the designed stacking angle is out of range, which can affect structural performance. Accordingly, it is important to analyze the stacking angle in order to confirm that the composite structure is correctly fabricated as designed. In this study, the stacking angle was predicted from real cross-sectional images of fiber-reinforced composites using convolutional neural network (CNN)-based deep learning. Carbon fiber-reinforced composite specimens with several stacking angles were fabricated and their cross-sections were photographed on a micro-scale using an optical microscope. The training was performed for a CNN-based deep learning model using the cross-sectional image data of the composite specimens. As a result, the stacking angle can be predicted from the actual cross-sectional image of the fiber-reinforced composite with high accuracy.