• Journal of Surface Science and Engineering
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• v.42 no.6
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• pp.267-271
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• 2009

Multicomponent transparent conducting oxide films were deposited on glass substrates at 150 by dual magnetron sputtering of AZO and ITO targets. In the case of mixing a limited amount of ITO (10W), resistivity of TCO films was significantly increased compared to the AZO film; from $3.5{\times}10^{-3}$ to $9.7{\times}10^{-3}{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$. Deterioration of the electrical conductivity is attributed to the decreases in carrier concentration and Hall mobility. Improvement of the conductivity could be obtained for the films prepared with ITO powers larger than 40 W. The lowest resistivity ($\rho$) of $7.3{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$ was achieved when ITO power was 100 W. Effects of $H_2$ incorporation on the electrical and optical properties of AZO-ITO films were investigated in this work. Addition of small amount of hydrogen resulted in the increase of carrier concentration and the improvement of electrical conductivity. It is apparent that the roughness of AZO-ITO films decreases dramatically after the transition of microstructure from polycrystalline to amorphous phase, which gives practical advantages such as an excellent uniformity of surface and a high etching rate. AZO-ITO films grown at sputtering ambient with hydrogen gas are expected to be applicable to optoelectronic devices such as organic light emitting diodes and flexible displays due to their sufficient electrical and structural properties.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.11a
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• pp.55.1-55.1
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• 2010

Cost efficient and large area deposition of superior quality $Al_2O_3$ doped zinc oxide (AZO) films is instrumental in many of its applications including solar cell fabrication due to its numerous advantages over ITO films. In this study, AZO films were prepared by a highly efficient rotating cylindrical dc magnetron sputtering system using AZO target, which has a target material utilization above 80%, on glass substrates in argon ambient. A detailed analysis on the electrical, optical and structural characteristics of AZO thin films was carried out for solar cell application. The properties of films were found to critically depend on deposition parameters such as sputtering power, substrate temperature, working pressure, and thickness of the films. A low resistivity of ${\sim}5.5{\times}10-4{\Omega}-cm$ was obtained for films deposited at 2kW, keeping the pressure and substrate temperature constant at 3 mtorr and $230^{\circ}C$ respectively, mainly due to an increase in carrier mobility and large grain size which would reduce the grain boundary scattering. The increase in carrier mobility with power can be attributed to the columnar growth of AZO film with (002) preferred orientation as revealed by XRD analysis. The AZO films showed a high transparency of>87% in the visible wavelength region irrespective of deposition conditions. Our results offers a cost-efficient AZO film deposition method which can fabricate films with significant low resistivity and high transmittance that can find application in thin-film solar cells.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.65-69
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• 2011

The $Tio_2$ films were prepared on glass, silicon and quartz substrate at different temperature by radio frequency reactive magnetron sputtering under different flow ratios of Ar and O2 gases. The films were characterized by X-ray diffractometer (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), atomic force microscope (AFM) and UV-VIS spectrophotometer. Only the anatase phase was observed in films and their diffaction peaks increased with temprature of substrate. The size of crystallites decreased with higher concentration of oxygen. Refractive index and optical absorption of thin films decreased with higher concentration of oxygen. The thin films which have good transmittance spectra and smooth surface, deposited in the sputtering ambient with 10 % of $O_2$ at the temperature from $400{\circ}C$ to $300{\circ}C$.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.41-50
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• 2016

OBJECTIVES : In this study, microstructural components of crumb rubber modified asphalt (CRMA) binder were investigated using environmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM). To clearly understand the elemental composition of the CRMA binder, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) was employed on the ESEM samples. METHODS : CRMA binders were produced using open blade mixers at $177^{\circ}C$ for 30 min. The binders were artificially aged through a series of accelerated aging processes. Sample preparation was done by making a mold shape on the glass slide. Thereafter, the morphology of the CRMA binder was observed using the ESEM coupled with the EDX. RESULTS : The images captured from the ESEM indicate that the unaged CRMA binder appears to have a single-phase continuous nonuniform structure after the addition of crumb rubber particles, whereas the artificially aged CRMA binder was observed to have two different phases. ESEM coupled with EDX shows detailed internal structure of the modified binders compared to other technologies (i.e., optical microscopy, atomic force microscopy, and conventional scanning electron microscope). CONCLUSIONS : The captured images resemble the internal structures such as the viscous properties of the unaged CRMA binder and the interaction between the rubber particles and the base binder at aged condition. ESEM is a powerful instrument and with the introduction of EDX, it provided more details of the network microstructure of the asphalt binder. ESEM coupled with EDX is recommended for use in future investigation of microstructure of asphalt binders.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.445-451
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• 2015

Semi-flexible liquid crystalline polymers containing a mesogenic group and an octamethylene flexible spacer in the main chain were synthesized by solution polycondensation. The mesogenic group in the polymer consists of four aromatic rings connected by ester and ketone, ether, sulfide, methylene, sulfone, or isopropylidene linkage groups. This paper discusses effects of the central linker of the mesogenic group on polymer properties. The structures and properties of synthesized polymers were investigated by $^1H$-NMR, FT-IR, differential scanning calorimeter (DSC), thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA), X-ray diffractometer (XRD), and polarizing optical microscope (POM). Polymers having bent linkage groups exhibited low thermal transition temperatures, narrow mesophase temperature ranges, low liquid crystallinity, and good solubilities in organic solvents, while those having bulky linkage groups were amorphous and exhibited high glass transition temperatures.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.303-307
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• 2015

Multilayered films of ITO (In₂O₃:SnO₂ = 9:1)/SiO₂ were deposited on soda-lime glass by RF/DC magnetron sputtering at 500℃ to improve the energy conversion efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The light absorption of the dye was improved by decrease in light reflectance from the surface of the DSSCs by using an ITO film. In order to estimate the optical characteristics and compare them with experimental results, a simulation program named EMP (essential macleod program) was used. EMP results revealed that the multilayered thin films showed high transmittance (approximate average transmittance of 79%) by adjusting the SiO₂ layer thickness. XRD results revealed that the ITO and TiO₂ films exhibited a crystalline phase with (400) and (101) preferred orientations at 2 θ = 26.24° and 35.18°, respectively. The photocurrent-voltage (I-V) characteristics of the DSSCs were measured under AM 1.5 and 100 mW/cm² (1 sun) by using a solar simulator. The DSSC fabricated on the ITO film with a 0.1-nm-thick SiO₂ film showed a Voc of 0.697 V, J_sc of 10.596 mA/cm² , FF of 66.423, and calculated power conversion efficiency (η_AM1.5) of 5.259%, which was the maximum value observed in this study.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.28-28
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• 2009

Fabrications of antireflection structures on solar cell were investigated to trap the light and to improve quantum efficiency. Introductions of patterned substrate or textured layer for Si solar cell were performed to prevent reflectance and to increase the path length of incoming light. However, it is difficult to deposit conformally flat electrode on perpendicular plane. ZnO is II-VI compound semiconductor and well-known wide band-gap material. It has similar electrical and optical properties as ITO, but it is nontoxic and stable. In this study, Al-doped ZnO thin films are deposited as transparent electrode by atomic layer deposition method to coat on Si substrate with micro-scale structures. The deposited AZO layer is flatted on horizontal plane as well as perpendicular one with conformal 200 nm thickness. The carrier concentration, mobility and resistivity of deposited AZO thin film on glass substrate were measured $1.4\times10^{20}cm^{-3}$, $93.3cm^2/Vs$, $4.732\times10^{-4}{\Omega}cm$ with high transmittance over 80%. The AZO films were coated with polyimide and performed selective polyimide stripping on head of column by reactive ion etching to measure resistance along columns surface. Current between the micro-columns flows onto the perpendicular plane of deposited AZO film with low resistance.

• Korean Journal of Optics and Photonics
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.317-322
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• 2006

A polymeric arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) has been proposed and demonstrated by exploiting the nanoimprint method. A PDMS(polydimethylsiloxane) stamp with device patterns engraved was developed out of a master mold made of quartz glass. The device was fabricated by transferring the pattern in the PDMS stamp to a spin-coated polymer film without using any etching process. The device had 8 output channels, while the center wavelengths of each output channel were positioned from 1543.7 nm to 1548.3 nm with the spacing of 0.8 nm. The achieved average channel crosstalk and the 3-dB bandwidth were about 10 dB and 0.8 nm respectively.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.429-438
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• 2003

The effects of fiber orientation on acoustic emission(AE) characteristics have been studied for the unidirectional and satin-weave, continuous glass-fiber reinforced plastic(UD-GFRP and SW-GFRP) tensile specimens. Reflection and transmission optical microscopy was used for investigation of the damage zone of specimens. AE signals were classified as different types by using short time fourier transform(STFT) : AE signals with high intensity and high frequency band were due to fiber fracture, while weak AE signals with low frequency band were due to matrix and interfacial cracking. The feature in the rate of hit-events having high amplitudes showed a process of fiber breakages, which expressed the characteristic fracture processes of individual fiber-reinforced plastics with different fiber orientations and with different notching directions. As a consequence, the fracture behavior of the continuous GFRP could be monitored as nondestructive evaluation(NDE) through the AE technique.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.43 no.2 s.285
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• pp.114-120
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• 2006

Nano-size Au particle doped $TiO_2$ films were prepared with $Ti(OC_3H_7^i)_4$, polyvinylpyrrolidone(PVP), $HAuCl_4$ and $C_3H_7OH$ etc. by sol-gel method. $TiO_2$ gel films were obtained by the dip-coating method on the $SiO_2$ glass substrates, and then heat-treated at $700^{\circ}C$ for 10 min. The thickness of $TiO_2$ films were $0.7\~1.8\;{\mu}m$. It was found that the thickness of films prepared from PVP containing solution was about $2\~8$ times higher values than that of thin films without PVP. The size of Au particles doped in the films were about $350\~750\;nm$. Nano-size Au particle dispersed $TiO_2$ films showed high absorption peak at visible region 450nm, which made them good candidates for non-linear optical materials and photo-catalytic materials. The contact angle of $TiO_2$ film for water was $12.5^{\circ}$, and therefore it is clear that $TiO_2$ films have very high hydrophilic properties and the self-cleaning effects.