• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.10 no.10
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• pp.684-690
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• 2000

In order to study effects of interfacial layers between $Pb(Zr,Til)Q_3(PZT)$ films and electrodes for Metal-Ferroelectric-MetaI(MFM) structure capacitors, we have fabricated the capacitors with the Pt/PZT/interfacial-layer/Pt/$TiO_2/SiO_2$/Si structure. $PbTiO_3(PT)$ interfacial layers were formed by sol-gel deposition and PbO, ZrO, and $TiO_2$ thin layers were deposited by reactive sputtering. $TiO_2$ interface layers result in the finest grains of PZT(crystalline Temp. $600^{\circ}C$) films compare to $PbO_2\;and\;ZrO_2$ layers. However, as the thickness of $TiO_2$ layer increases. PZT thin films become rough and electrical characteristics were deteriorated due to remained anatase phase. On the other hand. PT interface layers result in improved morphology of PZT films and do not significantly change ferroelectric properties. It is a also observed that seed layers at the middle and top of PZT films do not give significant effects on grain size but the PT seed layer at the interface between the bottom electrode and the PZT films results in the small grain size.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.65-65
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• 2012

Copper zinc tin sulfide ($Cu_2ZnSnS_4$, CZTS) is a very promising material as a low cost absorber alternative to other chalcopyrite-type semiconductors based on Ga or In because of the abundant and economical elements. In addition, CZTS has a band-gap energy of 1.4~1.5eV and large absorption coefficient over ${\sim}10^4cm^{-1}$, which is similar to those of $Cu(In,Ga)Se_2$(CIGS) regarded as one of the most successful absorber materials for high efficient solar cell. Most previous works on the fabrication of CZTS thin films were based on the vacuum deposition such as thermal evaporation and RF magnetron sputtering. Although the vacuum deposition has been widely adopted, it is quite expensive and complicated. In this regard, the solution processes such as sol-gel method, nanocrystal dispersion and hybrid slurry method have been developed for easy and cost-effective fabrication of CZTS film. Among these methods, the hybrid slurry method is favorable to make high crystalline and dense absorber layer. However, this method has the demerit using the toxic and explosive hydrazine solvent, which has severe limitation for common use. With these considerations, it is highly desirable to develop a robust, easily scalable and relatively safe solution-based process for the fabrication of a high quality CZTS absorber layer. Here, we demonstrate the fabrication of a high quality CZTS absorber layer with a thickness of 1.5~2.0 ${\mu}m$ and micrometer-scaled grains using two different non-vacuum approaches. The first solution-processing approach includes air-stable non-toxic solvent-based inks in which the commercially available precursor nanoparticles are dispersed in ethanol. Our readily achievable air-stable precursor ink, without the involvement of complex particle synthesis, high toxic solvents, or organic additives, facilitates a convenient method to fabricate a high quality CZTS absorber layer with uniform surface composition and across the film depth when annealed at $530^{\circ}C$. The conversion efficiency and fill factor for the non-toxic ink based solar cells are 5.14% and 52.8%, respectively. The other method is based on the nanocrystal dispersions that are a key ingredient in the deposition of thermally annealed absorber layers. We report a facile synthetic method to produce phase-pure CZTS nanocrystals capped with less toxic and more easily removable ligands. The resulting CZTS nanoparticle dispersion enables us to fabricate uniform, crack-free absorber layer onto Mo-coated soda-lime glass at $500^{\circ}C$, which exhibits a robust and reproducible photovoltaic response. Our simple and less-toxic approach for the fabrication of CZTS layer, reported here, will be the first step in realizing the low-cost solution-processed CZTS solar cell with high efficiency.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.66-70
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• 2012

Ti-Ni alloys are widely used in numerous biomedical applications (e.g., orthodontics, cardiovascular science, orthopaedics) due to their distinctive thermomechanical and mechanical properties, such as the shape memory effect, superelasticity and low elastic modulus. In order to increase the biocompatibility of Ti-Ni alloys, many surface modification techniques, such as the sol-gel technique, plasma immersion ion implantation (PIII), laser surface melting, plasma spraying, and chemical vapor deposition, have been employed. In this study, a Ti-49.5Ni (at%) alloy was electrochemically etched in 1M $H_2SO_4$+ X (1.5, 2.0, 2.5) wt% HF electrolytes to modify the surface morphology. The morphology, element distribution, crystal structure, roughness and energy of the surface were investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive Xray spectrometry (EDS), X-ray diffractometry (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and contact angle analysis. Micro-sized pores were formed on the Ti-49.5Ni (at%) alloy surface by electrochemical etching with 1M $H_2SO_4$+ X (1.5, 2.0, 2.5) wt% HF. The volume fractions of the pores were increased by increasing the concentration of the HF electrolytes. Depending on the HF concentration, different pore sizes, heights, surface roughness levels, and surface energy levels were obtained. To investigate the osteoblast adhesion of the electrochemically etched Ti-49.5Ni (at%) alloy, a MTT test was performed. The degree of osteoblast adhesion was increased at a high concentration of HF-treated surface structures.

• The Korean Journal of Ceramics
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.36-40
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• 2001

In order to fabricate uncooled IR sensors for pyroelectric applications, multilayered thin films of Pt/PbTiO$_3$/Pt/Ti/Si$_3$N$_4$/SiO$_2$/Si and thermally isolating membrane structures of square-shaped/cantilevers-shaped microstructures were prepared. Cavity was also fabricated via direct silicon wafer bonding and etching technique. Metallic Pt layer was deposited by ion beam sputtering while PbTiO$_3$ thin films were prepared by sol-gel technique. Micromachining technology was used to fabricate microstructured-membrane detectors. In order to avoid a difficulty of etching active layers, silicon-nitride membrane structure was fabricated through the direct bonding and etching of the silicon wafer. Although multilayered thin film deposition and device fabrications were processed independently, these could b integrated to make IR micro-sensor devices.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.08a
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• pp.281-281
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• 2010

Very low refractive index (<1.4) materials have been proved to be the key factor improving the performance of various optical components, such as reflectors, filters, photonic crystals, LEDs, and solar cell. Highly porous SiO2 are logically designed for ultralow refractive index materials because of the direct relation between porosity and index of refraction. Among them, ordered macroporous SiO2 is of potential material since their theoretically low refractive index ~1.10. However, in the conventional synthesis of ordered macroporous SiO2, the time required for the crystallization of organic nanoparticles, such as polystyrene (PS), from colloidal solution into well ordered template is typical long (several days for 1 cm substrate) due to the low interaction between particles and particle - substrate. In this study, polystyrene - polyacrylic acid (PS-AA) nanoparticles synthesized by miniemulsion polymerization method have hydrophilic polyacrylic acid tails on the surface of particles which increase the interaction between particle and with substrate giving rise to the formation of PS-AA film by simply spin - coating method. Less ordered with controlled thickness films of PS-AA on silicon wafer were successfully fabricated by changing the spinning speed or concentration of colloidal solution, as confirmed by FE-SEM. Based on these template films, a series of macroporous SiO2 films whose thicknesses varied from 300nm to ~1000nm were fabricated either by conventional sol - gel infiltration or gas phase deposition followed by thermal removal of organic template. Formations of SiO2 films consist of interconnected air balls with size ~100 nm were confirmed by FE-SEM and TEM. These highly porous SiO2 show very low refractive indices (<1.18) over a wide range of wavelength (from 200 to 1000nm) as shown by SE measurement. Refraction indices of SiO2 films at 633nm reported here are of ~1.10 which, to our best knowledge, are among the lowest values having been announced.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.439-439
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• 2012

ZnO 나노로드는 큰 밴드갭 에너지(~3.37 eV)와 60 meV의 높은 엑시톤 결합 에너지(exciton binding energy)를 갖고 있으며, 우수한 전기적, 광학적 특성을 지닌 1차원 나노구조의 금속산화물로서 태양전지 및 광전소자 널리 응용되고 있다. 이러한 ZnO 나노로드를 성장하는 방법 중에 전기화학증착법(electrochemical deposition method)은 전도성 물질위에 증착된 시드층(seed layer)을 성장용액에 담그어 전압을 인가하여 만들기 때문에 기존의 수열합성법(hydrothermal method), 졸-겔 법(sol-gel method)보다 비교적 간단한 공정과정으로 저온에서 빠르게 물질을 성장시킬 수 있는 장점이 있다. 한편, 디스플레이 산업에서 ITO (indium tin oxide)는 투명 전도성 산화물(transparent conductive oxide)로써 가시광 파장영역에서 높은 투과율과 전도성을 가지며, 액정디스플레이, LED (Light emitting diode), 태양전지 등의 다양한 소자에 투명전극 재료로 쓰이고 있다. 또한 최근 ITO를 유연한 PET (polyethylene terephthalate) 기판 위에 증착은 얇고, 가볍고, 휘어지기 쉬워 휴대하기 편하기 때문에 차세대 광전자소자 응용에 가능성이 크다. 본 연구에서는 ZnO 나노로드를 ITO/PET 기판위에 전기화학증착법으로 성장하여, 구조적 및 광학적 특성을 분석하였다. 시드층을 형성하기 위해 RF 마그네트론 스퍼터를 이용하여 ~20 nm 두께의 ZnO 박막을 증착시킨 후, zinc nitrate와 hexamethylenetetramine이 포함된 수용액에 시료를 담그어 전압을 인가하였다. 용액의 농도와 인가전압을 조절하여 여러 가지 성장조건에 대한 ZnO 나노로드의 구조적, 광학적 특성을 비교하였다. 성장된 시료의 형태와 결정성을 조사하기 위해, field-emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD)을 사용하였으며, UV-vis-NIS spectrophotometer, photoluminescence (PL) 측정장비를 사용하여 광학적 특성을 분석하였다.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.20 no.8
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• pp.401-407
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• 2010

We studied the influence of different types of metal electrodes on the performance of solution-processed zinc tin oxide (ZTO) thin-film transistors. The ZTO thin-film was obtained by spin-coating the sol-gel solution made from zinc acetate and tin acetate dissolved in 2-methoxyethanol. Various metals, Al, Au, Ag and Cu, were used to make contacts with the solution-deposited ZTO layers by selective deposition through a metal shadow mask. Contact resistance between the metal electrode and the semiconductor was obtained by a transmission line method (TLM). The device based on an Al electrode exhibited superior performance as compared to those based on other metals. Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM) allowed us to measure the work function of the oxide semiconductor to understand the variation of the device performance as a function of the types metal electrode. The solution-processed ZTO contained nanopores that resulted from the burnout of the organic species during the annealing. This different surface structure associated with the solution-processed ZTO gave a rise to a different work function value as compared to the vacuum-deposited counterpart. More oxygen could be adsorbed on the nanoporous solution-processed ZTO with large accessible surface areas, which increased its work function. This observation explained why the solution-processed ZTO makes an ohmic contact with the Al electrode.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2009.05a
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• pp.28.1-28.1
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• 2009

The superior properties of ZnO such as high exciton binding energy, high thermal and chemical stability, low growth temperature and possibility of wet etching process in ZnO have great interest for applications ranging from optoelectronics to chemical sensor. Particularly, vertically well-aligned ZnO nanorods on large areas with good optical and structural properties are of special interest for the fabrication of electronic and optical nanodevices. Currently, low-dimensional ZnO is synthesized by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD), molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), thermal evaporation, and sol.gel growth. Recently, our group has been reported about achievement the growth of Ga-doped ZnO nanorods using ZnO seed layer on p-type Si substrate by RF magnetron sputtering system at high rf power and high growth temperature. However, the crystallinity of nanorods deteriorates due to lattice mismatch between nanorods and Si substrate. Also, in the growth of oxide using sputtering, the oxygen flow ratio relative to argon gas flow is an important growth parameter and significantly affects the structural properties. In this study, Phosphorus (P) doped ZnO nanorods were grown on c-sapphire substrates without seed layer by radio frequency magnetron sputtering with various argon/oxygen gas ratios. The layer change films into nanorods with decreasing oxygen partial pressure. The diameter and length of vertically well-aligned on the c-sapphire substrate are in the range of 51-103 nm and about 725 nm, respectively. The photoluminescence spectra of the nanorods are dominated by intense near band-edge emission with weak deep-level emission.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.02a
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• pp.37-37
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• 2010

Silicate-silsesquioxane or siloxane-silsesquioxane hybrid thin films are strong candidates as matrix materials for ultra low dielectric constant (low-k) thin films. We synthesized the silicate-silsesquioxane hybrid resins from tetraethoxyorthosilicate (TEOS) and methyltrimethoxysilane (MTMS) through hydrolysis and condensation polymerization by changing their molar ratios ([TEOS]:[MTMS] = 7:3, 5:5, and 3:7), spin-coating on Si(100) wafers. In the case of [TEOS]:[MTMS] 7:3, the dielectric permittivity value of the resultant thin film was measured at 4.30, exceeding that of the thermal oxide (3.9). This high value was thought to be due to Si-OH groups inside the film and more extensive studies were performed in terms of electronic, ionic, and orientational polarizations using Debye equation. The relationship between the mechanical properties and the synthetic conditions of the silicate-silsesquioxane precursors was also investigated. The synthetic conditions of the low-k films have to be chosen to meet both the low orientational polarization and high mechanical properties requirements. In addition, we have investigated a new solution-based approach to the synthesis of semiconducting chalcogenide films for use in thin-film transistor (TFT) devices, in an attempt to develop a simple and robust solution process for the synthesis of inorganic semiconductors. Our material design strategy is to use a sol-gel reaction to carry out the deposition of a spin-coated CdS film, which can then be converted to a xerogel material. These devices were found to exhibit n-channel TFT characteristics with an excellent field-effect mobility (a saturation mobility of ${\sim}\;48\;cm^2V^{-1}s^{-1}$) and low voltage operation (< 5 V). These results show that these semiconducting thin film materials can be used in low-cost and high-performance printable electronics.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.8.1-8.1
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• 2011

Nanocrystalline titanium dioxide ($TiO_2$) materials have been widely used as an electron collector in DSSC. This is required to have an extremely high porosity and surface area such that the dye can be sufficiently adsorbed and be electronically interconnected, resulting in the generation of a high photocurrent within cells. In particular, their geometrical structures and crystalline phase have been extensively investigated as important issues in improving its photovoltaic efficiency. In this study, we present a new strategy to fabricate a photoelectrode having a periodic structured $TiO_2$ film templated from 1D or 3D polystyrene (PS) microspheres array. Monodisperse PS spheres of various radiuses were used for colloidal array on FTO glasses and two types of photoelectrode structures with different $TiO_2$ materials were investigated respectively. One is the igloo-shaped electrode prepared by $TiO_2$ deposition by RF-sputtering onto 2D microsphere-templated substrates. At the interface between the film and substrate, there are voids formed by the decomposition of PS microspheres during the calcination step. These holes might be expected to play the predominant roles as scattering spherical voids to promote a light harvesting effect, a spacious structure for electrolytes with higher viscosity and effective paths for electron transfer. Additionally the nanocrystalline $TiO_2$ phase prepared by the RF-sputtering method was previously reported to improve the electron drift mobility within $TiO_2$ electrodes. This yields solar cells with a cell efficiency of 2.45% or more at AM 1.5 illumination, which is a very remarkable result, considering its $TiO_2$ electrode thickness (<2 ${\mu}m$). This study can be expanded to obtain higher cell efficiency by higher dye loading through the increase of surface area or multi-layered stacking. The other is the inverse opal photonic crystal electrode prepared by titania particles infusion within 3D colloidal arrays. To obtain the enlargement of ordered area and high quality of crystallinity, the synthesis of titania particles coated with a organic thin layer were applied instead of sol-gel process using the $TiO_2$ precursors. They were dispersed so well in most solvents without aggregates and infused successfully within colloidal array structures. This ordered mesoporous structure provides the large surface area leading to the enough adsorption of dye molecules and have an light harvesting effect due to the photonic band gap properties (back-and-forth reflection effects within structures). A major advantage of this colloidal array template method is that the pore size and its distribution within $TiO_2$ photoelectrodes are determined by those of latex beads, which can be controlled easily. These materials may have promising potentials for future applications of membrane, sensor and so on as well as solar cells.