• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.254-259
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• 2015

$Bi_2Te_3$ related compounds show the best thermoelectric properties at room temperature. However, n-type $Bi_2Te_{2.7}Se_{0.3}$ showed no improvement on ZT values. To improve the thermolectric propterties of n-type $Bi_2Te_{2.7}Se_{0.3}$, this research has Cu-doped n-type powder. This study focused on effects of Cu-doping method on the thermoelectric properties of n-type materials, and evaluated the comparison between the Cu chemical and mechanical doping. The synthesized powder was manufactured by the spark plasma sintering(SPS). The thermoelectric properties of the sintered body were evaluated by measuring their Seebeck coefficient, electrical resistivity, thermal conductivity, and hall coefficient. An introduction of a small amount of Cu reduced the thermal conductivity and improved the electrical properties with Seebeck coefficient. The authors provided the optimal concentration of $Cu_{0.1}Bi_{1.99}Se_{0.3}Te_{2.7}$. A figure of merit (ZT) value of 1.22 was obtained for $Cu_{0.1}Bi_{1.9}Se_{0.3}Te_{2.7}$ at 373K by Cu chemical doping, which was obviously higher than those of $Cu_{0.1}Bi_{1.9}Se_{0.3}Te_{2.7}$ at 373K by Cu mechanical doping (ZT=0.56) and Cu-free $Bi_2Se_{0.3}Te_{2.7}$ (ZT=0.51).

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2000.02a
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• pp.170-170
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• 2000

Synthetic polymers such as polyimide, polycarbonate, and poly(methyl methacrylate) are long chain molecules which consist of carbon, hydrogen, and heteroatom linked together chemically. Recently, polymer surface can be modified by using a high energy ion beam process. High energy ions are introduced into polymer structure with high velocity and provide a high degree of chemical bonding between molecular chains. In high energy beam process the modified polymers have the highly crosslinked three-dimensionally connected rigid network structure and they showed significant improvements in electrical conductivity, in hardness and in resistance to wear and chemicals. Polyimide films (Kapton, types HN) with thickness of 50~100${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ were used for investigations. They were treated with two different surface modification techniques: Plasma Source Ion Implantation (PSII) and conventional Ion Implantation. Polyimide films were implanted with different ion species such as Ar+, N+, C+, He+, and O+ with dose from 1 x 1015 to 1 x 1017 ions/cm2. Ion energy was varied from 10keV to 60keV for PSII experiment. Polyimide samples were also implanted with 1 MeV hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen ions with a dose of 1x1015ions/cm2. This work provides the possibility for inducing conductivity in polyimide films by ion beam bombardment in the keloelectronvolt to megaelectronvolt energy range. The electrical properties of implanted polyimide were determined by four-point probe measurement. Depending on ion energy, doses, and ion type, the surface resistivity of the film is reduced by several orders of magnitude. Ion bombarded layers were characterized by Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (TOF-SIMS), XPS, and SEM.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.08a
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• pp.145-145
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• 2010

In this paper, we report that the effects of hydrogen doping on the electrical and optical properties of typical transparent conducting oxide films such as ZnO and $SnO_2$ prepared by magnetron sputtering. Recently, density functional theory (DFT) calculations have shown strong evidence that hydrogen acts as a source of n-type conductivity in ZnO. In this work, the beneficial effect of hydrogen incorporation on Ga-doped ZnO thin films was demonstrated. It was found that hydrogen doping results a noticeable improvement of the conductivity mainly due to the increases in carrier concentration. Extent of the improvement was found to be quite dependent on the deposition temperature. A low resistivity of $4.0{\times}10^{-4}\;{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$ was obtained for the film grown at $160^{\circ}C$ with $H_2$ 10% in sputtering gas. However, the beneficial effect of hydrogen doping was not observed for the films deposited at $270^{\circ}C$. Variations of the electrical transport properties upon vacuum annealing showed that the difference is attributed to the thermal stability of interstitial hydrogen atoms in the films. Theoretical calculations also suggested that hydrogen forms a shallow-donor state in $SnO_2$, even though no experimental determination has yet been performed. We prepared undoped $SnO_2$ thin films by RF magnetron sputtering under various hydrogen contents in sputtering ambient and then exposed them to H-plasma. Our results clearly showed that the hydrogen incorporation in $SnO_2$ leads to the increase in carrier concentration. Our experimental observation supports the fact that hydrogen acting as a shallow donor seems to be a general feature of the TCOs.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.08a
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• pp.208-208
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• 2010

Zinc oxide (ZnO) is a functional material with interesting optical and electrical properties, a wide band gap (more than 3.3 eV), a high transmittance in the visible light region, piezoelectric properties, and a high n-type conductivity. This material has been investigated for use in many applications, such as transparent electrodes, blue light-emitting diodes, and ultra-violet detector. ZnO films grown under low oxygen pressure by thin film deposition methods show low resistivity and large free electron concentration. Therefore, reducing the background carrier concentration in ZnO films is one of the major challenges ahead of realizing high-performance ZnO-based optoelectronic devices. In this study, we deposited ZnO thin films on sapphire substrates by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) with employing an oxygen plasma source to decrease the background free-electron concentration and enhance the crystalline quality. Then, the substrate temperature was varied between 200 'C to 900 'C The vacuum chamber was initially evacuated to a pressure of $10^{-6}$ Torr, and then a pure $O_2$ gas was introduced into the chamber and the pressure during deposition was maintained at $10^{-2}$ Torr. Crystallinity and orientation of ZnO films were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD). The film surface was analyzed with atomic force microscope (AFM). And electrical properties were measured at room temperature by Hall measurement.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.27 no.10
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• pp.662-667
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• 2014

B-doped Si nanoparticles were synthesized by using inductive coupled plasma and specially designed double tube reactor, and their microstructures were investigated. 0~10 sccm of $B_2H_6$ gas was injected during the synthesis of Si nanoparticles from $SiH_4$ gas. Highly crystalline Si nanoparticles were synthesized, and their crystallinity did not change with increase of $B_2H_6$ flow rates. From SEM measurement, their particle sizes were approximately 30 nm regardless of $B_2H_6$ flow rates. From SIMS analysis, almost saturation of B in Si nanoparticles was detected only when 1 sccm of $B_2H_6$ was injected. When $B_2H_6$ flow rate exceeded 5 sccm, higher concentration of B than solubility limit was detected even if any secondary phase was not detected in XRD or HR-TEM results. Due to their high electronic conductivity, those heavily B-doped Si nanoparticles can be a potential candidate for an active material in Li-ion battery anode.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.430.2-430.2
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• 2016

The front transparent conductive oxide (TCO) films in thin fill solar cell should exhibit high transparency, conductivity, good surface morphology and excellent light scattering properties. The light trapping phenomenon is limited due to random surface structure of TCO films. The proper control of surface structure and uniform cauliflower TCO films may be appropriate for efficient light trapping. We report light trapping scheme of ICP-RIE glass texturing by SF6/Ar plasma for high roughness and haze ratio of ITO films. It was observed that the variation of etching time, pattern size and Ar flow ratio during ICP-RIE process were important factors to improve the diffused transmittance and haze ratio of textured glass. The ICP-RIE textured glass showed low etching rates due to the presence of metal elements like Al, B, F and Na. The ITO films deposited on textured glass substrates showed the high RMS roughness and haze ratio in the visible wavelength region. The change in surface morphology showed negligible influence on electrical and structural properties of ITO films. The ITO films with high roughness and haze ratio can be used to improve the performance of thin film solar cells.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.27 no.9
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• pp.495-500
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• 2017

Oxide layers were formed by an environmentally friendly plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO) process on AZ91 Mg alloy. PEO treatment also resulted in strong adhesion between the oxide layer and the substrate. The influence of the KF electrolytic solution and the structure, composition, microstructure, and micro-hardness properties of the oxide layer were investigated. It was found that the addition of KF instead of KOH to the $Na_2SiO_3$ electrolytic solution increased the electrical conductivity. The oxide layers were mainly composed of MgO and $Mg_2SiO_4$ phases. The oxide layers exhibited solidification particles and pancake-shaped oxide melting. The pore size and surface roughness of the oxide layer decreased considerably with an increase in the concentration of KF, while densification of the oxide layers increased. It is shown that the addition of KF to the basis electrolyte resulted in fabricating of an oxide layer with higher surface hardness and smoother surface roughness on Mg alloys by the PEO process. The uniform thickness of the oxide layer formed on the Mg alloy substrates was largely determined by the electrolytic solution with KF, which suggests that the composition of the electrolytic solution is one of the key factors controlling the uniform thickness of the oxide layer.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2014

Aluminum nitride, which has outstanding properties such as high thermal conductivity and electrical resistivity, has been received a great attention as a substrate and packaging material of semiconductor devices. Since aluminum nitride has a high sintering temperature of 2173 K and its properties depends on the impurity level, it is necessary to synthesize high-purity and nano-sized aluminum nitride powders for the applications. In this research, we synthesized high purity aluminum nitride nanopowders from aluminum using RF induction thermal plasma system. Sheath gas (NH3) flow was controlled to establish the synthesis condition of high purity aluminum nitride nanopowders. The obtained aluminum nitride nanopowders were evaluated by XRD, SEM, TEM, BET, FTIR and N-O analysis.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.587-591
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• 1998

AZO transparent conducting thin film were fabricated by DC magnetron sputtering using the Zn: Al (2% aluminu contained ) alloy target with inducing microwave to the plasma, and the effect of microwave was studied. The optical transmittance, the resistivity and dynamic deposition rate at the applied voltage to target of 420 V was 50~70%, $ 5.5{\times}10^{-3}{\Omega}$cm and 6,000 $\AA\textrm{mm}^2$/J, respectively. After annealing AZO coated glass at $400^{\circ}C$ for 30 minutes, the light transmittance was increased to 80% and electrical conductivity was also increased two times, reached to resistivity of $2.0{\times}10^{-3}{\Omega}$cm.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.229.2-229.2
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• 2014

Graphene, an allotrope of carbon, is a two-dimensional material having a unique electro-mechanical property that shows significant change of the electrical conductance under the applied strain. In addition of the extraordinary mechanical strength [1], graphene becomes a prospective candidate for pressure sensor technology [2]. However, very few investigations have been carried out to demonstrate characteristics of graphene sensor as a device form. In this study, we demonstrate a pressure sensor using graphene double layer as an active channel to generate electrical signal as the response of the applied vertical pressure. For formation of the active channel in the pressure sensor, two single graphene layers which are grown on Cu foil (25 um thickness) by the plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) are sequentially transformed to the poly-di-methyl-siloxane (PDMS) substrate. Dry and wet transfer methods are individually employed for formation of the double layer graphene. This sensor geometry results a switching characteristic which shows ~900% conductivity change in response to the application of pulsed pressure of 5 kPa whose on and off duration is 3 sec. Additionally, the functional reliability of the sensor confirms consistent behavior with a 200-cycle test.