• Applied Science and Convergence Technology
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.95-99
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• 2018

We discuss the structural and optical characteristics of GaN nanowires (NWs) grown on Si(111) substrates by a plasma-assisted molecular-beam epitaxy. The GaN NWs with high crystal quality were formed by adopting a new growth approach, so called Ga pre-deposition (GaPD) method. In the GaPD, only Ga was supplied without nitrogen flux on a SiN/Si surface, resulting in the formation of Ga droplets. The Ga droplets were used as initial nucleation sites for the growth of GaN NWs. The GaN NWs with the average heights of 60.10 to 214.62 nm obtained by increasing growth time. The hexagonal-shaped top surfaces and facets were observed from the field-emission electron microscope images of GaN NWs, indicating that the NWs have the wurtzite (WZ) crystal structure. Strong peaks of GaN (0002) corresponding to WZ structures were also observed from double crystal x-ray diffraction rocking curves of the NW samples. At room temperature, free-exciton emissions were observed from GaN NWs with narrow linewidth broadenings, indicating to the formation of high-quality NWs.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.249-256
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• 2008

0.5 wt% Al doped ZnO thin films (AZO) were prepared on glass substrates using RF magnetron sputtering method. Thin films were grown at substrate temperature of $250^{\circ}C$, RF power of 75W, working pressure of 10 mTorr, by changing the $O_2/Ar$ pressure ratio from 0% to 16.7%. The effects of oxygen partial pressure during the deposition process on structural and optical properties of the films were investigated using XRD, SEM, AFM, EPMA and UV-visible spectroscopy. All the AZO thin films were grown as hexagonal wurtzite phase with the c-axis preferred out-of-plane orientation. The surface roughness and grain size of AZO films decreased with increasing oxygen ratio from 10.6 nm to 3.2 nm and 94.9 nm to 30.9 nm, respectively. On the other hand, the transmittance and band gap energy of the AZO films increased from 84.7% to 92.6% and 3.24 eV to 3.28 eV, respectively with increasing the $O_2/Ar$ pressure ratio.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.388-396
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• 2023

Photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting is a vital source of clean and sustainable hydrogen energy. Moreover, the large-scale H₂ production is currently necessary, while long-term stability and high PEC activity still remain important issues. In this study, a GaN-based photoelectrode was modified by an additional NH₃ treatment (900℃ for 10 min) and its PEC behavior was monitored. The bare GaN exhibited a highly crystalline wurtzite structure with the (002) plane and the optical bandgap was approximately 3.2 eV. In comparison, the NH₃-treated GaN film exhibited slightly reduced crystallinity and a small improvement in light absorption, resulting from the lattice stress or cracks induced by the excessive N supply. The minor surface nanotexturing created more surface area, providing electroactive reacting sites. From the surface XPS analysis, the formation of an N-Ga-O phase on the surface region of the GaN film was confirmed, which suppressed the charge recombination process and the positive shift of E_FB. Therefore, these effects boosted the PEC activity of the NH₃-treated GaN film, with J values of approximately 0.35 and 0.78 mA·cm^-2 at 0.0 and 1.23 V_RHE, respectively, and an onset potential (V_on) of -0.24 V_RHE. In addition, there was an approximate 50% improvement in the J value within the highly applied potential region with a positive shift of V_on. This result could be explained by the increased nanotexturing on the surface structure, the newly formed defect/trap states correlated to the positive V_on shift, and the formation of a GaO_xN_1-x phase, which partially blocked the charge recombination reaction.

• Nanomaterials
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• v.12 no.10
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• pp.1618-1626
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• 2022

CdS films with a wide range of substrate temperatures as deposition parameters were fabricated on Corning Eagle 2000 glass substrates using RF magnetron sputtering. The crystallographic structure, microscopic surface texture, and stoichiometric and optical properties of each CdS film deposited at various substrate temperatures were observed to be highly temperature-dependent. The grown CdS thin films revealed a polycrystalline structure in which a cubic phase was mixed based on a hexagonal wurtzite phase. The relative intensity of the H(002)/C(111) peak, which represents the direction of the preferential growth plane, enhanced as the temperatures climbed from 25 ℃ to 350 ℃. On the contrary, the intensity of the main growth peak at the higher temperatures of 450 ℃ and 500 ℃ was significantly reduced and exhibited amorphous-like behavior. The sharp absorption edge revealed in the transmission spectrum shifted from the long wavelength to the short wavelength region with the rise in the substrate temperature. The bandgap showed a tendency to widen from 2.38 eV to 2.97 eV when the temperatures increased from 25 ℃ to 350 ℃. The CdS films grown at the temperatures of 450 ℃ and 500 ℃ exhibited glass-like transmittance with almost no interference fringes of light, which resulted in wide bandgap values of 3.09 eV and 4.19 eV, respectively.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.59 no.5
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• pp.397-406
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• 2015

ZnO, II-VI group inorganic compound semi-conductor, has been receiving much attention due to its wide applications in various fields. Since the ZnO has 3.37 eV of a wide band gap and 60 meV of big excitation binding energy, it is well-known material for various uses such the optical property, a semi-conductor, magnetism, antibiosis, photocatalyst, etc. When applied in the field of photocatalyst, many research studies have been actively conducted regarding magnetic materials and the core-shell structure to take on the need of recycling used materials. In this paper, magnetic core-shell ZnFe₂O₄@SiO₂ nanoparticles (NPs) have been successfully synthesized through three steps. In order to analyze the structural characteristics of the synthesized substances, X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) were used. The spinel structure of ZnFe₂O₄ and the wurtzite structure of ZnO were confirmed by XRD, and ZnO production rate was confirmed through the analysis of different concentrations of the precursors. The surface change of the synthesized materials was confirmed by SEM. The formation of SiO₂ layer and the synthesis of ZnFe₂O₄@ZnO@SiO₂ NPs were finally verified through the bond of Fe-O, Zn-O and Si-O-Si by FT-IR. The magnetic property of the synthesized materials was analyzed through the vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). The increase and decrease in the magnetism were respectively confirmed by the results of the formed ZnO and SiO₂ layer. The photocatalysis effect of the synthesized ZnFe₂O₄ @ZnO@SiO₂ NPs was experimented in a black box (dark room) using methylene blue (MB) under UV irradiation.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.31-31
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• 2010

The growth of the high-quality GaN epilayers is of significant technological importance because of their commercializedoptoelectronic applications as high-brightness light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and laser diodes (LDs) in the visible and ultraviolet spectral range. The GaN-based heterostructural epilayers have the polar c-axis of the hexagonal structure perpendicular to the interfaces of the active layers. The Ga and N atoms in the c-GaN are alternatively stacked along the polar [0001] crystallographic direction, which leads to spontaneous polarization. In addition, in the InGaN/GaN MQWs, the stress applied along the same axis contributes topiezoelectric polarization, and thus the total polarization is determined as the sum of spontaneous and piezoelectric polarizations. The total polarization in the c-GaN heterolayers, which can generate internal fields and spatial separation of the electron and hole wave functions and consequently a decrease of efficiency and peak shift. One of the possible solutions to eliminate these undesirable effects is to grow GaN-based epilayers in nonpolar orientations. The polarization effects in the GaN are eliminated by growing the films along the nonpolar [$11\bar{2}0$] ($\alpha$-GaN) or [$1\bar{1}00$] (m-GaN) orientation. Although the use of the nonpolar epilayers in wurtzite structure clearly removes the polarization matters, however, it induces another problem related to the formation of a high density of planar defects. The large lattice mismatch between sapphiresubstrates and GaN layers leads to a high density of defects (dislocations and stacking faults). The dominant defects observed in the GaN epilayers with wurtzite structure are one-dimensional (1D) dislocations and two-dimensional (2D) stacking faults. In particular, the 1D threading dislocations in the c-GaN are generated from the film/substrate interface due to their large lattice and thermal coefficient mismatch. However, because the c-GaN epilayers were grown along the normal direction to the basal slip planes, the generation of basal stacking faults (BSFs) is localized on the c-plane and the generated BSFs did not propagate into the surface during the growth. Thus, the primary defects in the c-GaN epilayers are 1D threading dislocations. Occasionally, the particular planar defects such as prismatic stacking faults (PSFs) and inversion domain boundaries are observed. However, since the basal slip planes in the $\alpha$-GaN are parallel to the growth direction unlike c-GaN, the BSFs with lower formation energy can be easily formed along the growth direction, where the BSFs propagate straightly into the surface. Consequently, the lattice mismatch between film and substrate in $\alpha$-GaN epilayers is mainly relaxed through the formation of BSFs. These 2D planar defects are placed along only one direction in the cross-sectional view. Thus, the nonpolar $\alpha$-GaN films have different atomic arrangements along the two orthogonal directions ($[0001]_{GaN}$ and $[\bar{1}100]_{GaN}$ axes) on the $\alpha$-plane, which are expected to induce anisotropic biaxial strain. In this study, the anisotropic strain relaxation behaviors in the nonpolar $\alpha$-GaN epilayers grown on ($1\bar{1}02$) r-plane sapphire substrates by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVO) were investigated, and the formation mechanism of the abnormal zigzag shape PSFs was discussed using high-resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM).

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.359-365
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• 2007

In this paper we present a bottom-gate type of zinc oxide (ZnO) and Gallium (Ga) doped zinc oxide (GZO) based thin film transistors (TFTs) through applying a radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering method at room temperature. The gate leakage current can be reduced up to several ph by applying $SiO_2$ thermally grown instead of using new gate oxide materials. The root mean square (RMS) values of the ZnO and GZO film surface were measured as 1.07 nm and 1.65 nm, respectively. Also, the transmittances of the ZnO and GZO film were more than 80% and 75%, respectively, and they were changed as their film thickness. The ZnO and GZO film had a wurtzite structure that was arranged well as a (002) orientation. The ZnO TFT had a threshold voltage of 2.5 V, a field effect mobility of $0.027\;cm^2/(V{\cdot}s)$, a on/off ratio of $10^4$, a gate voltage swing of 17 V/decade and it operated in a enhancement mode. In case of the GZO TFT, it operated in a depletion mode with a threshold voltage of -3.4 V, a field effect mobility of $0.023\;cm^2/(V{\cdot}s)$, a on/off ratio of $2{\times}10^4$ and a gate voltage swing of 3.3 V/decade. We successfully demonstrated that the TFTs with the enhancement and depletion mode type can be fabricated by using pure ZnO and 1wt% Ga-doped ZnO.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.691-698
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• 2010

In this study Al-doped ZnO (AZO) thin films have been fabricated on Eagle 2000 glass substrates at various substrate temperature ($100{\sim}500^{\circ}C$) and working pressure (10 ~ 40 mTorr) by RF magnetron sputtering in order to investigate the structural, electrical, and optical properties of the AZO thin films. The obtained films were polycrystalline with a hexagonal wurtzite structure and preferentially oriented in the (002) crystallographic direction. The AZO thin films, which were deposited at $T=300^{\circ}C$ for 10 mTorr, shows the highest (002) orientation, and the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the (002) diffraction peak is $0.42^{\circ}$. The lowest resistivity ($2.64{\times}10^{-3}\;{\Omega}cm$) with the highest cartier concentration ($5.29{\times}10^{20}\;cm^{-3}$) and a Hall mobility of ($6.23\;cm^2/Vs$) are obtained in the AZO thin films deposited at $T=300^{\circ}C$ for 10 mTorr. The optical transmittance in the visible region is approximately 80%, regardless of process conditions. The optical band-gap depends on the Al doping level as the substrate temperature increases and the working pressure decrease. The optical band-gap widening is proportional to cartier concentration due to the Burstein-Moss effect.

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.50-57
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• 2017

Zinc oxide is, one of metal oxide semiconductor, harmless to human and environment-friendly. It has excellent chemical and thermal stability properties. Wurtzite-zinc oxide is a large band gap energy of 3.37 eV and high exciton binding energy of 60 meV. It can be applied to various fields, such as solar cells, degradation of the dye waste, the gas sensor. The photocatalytic activity of zinc oxide is varied according to the particle shape and change of crystallinity. Therefore, It is very important to specify the additives and the experimental variables. In this study, the zinc oxide were synthesized by using a microwave assisted hydrothermal synthesis. The precursor was used as the zinc nitrate, the pH value was controlled as 11 by NaOH. Surfactants are the ethanolamine, cetyltrimethylammonium bromide, sodium dodecyl sulfate, sorbitan monooleate was added by changing the concentration. The composite particles had the shape of a star-like, curcular cone, seed shape, flake-sphere. Physical and chemical properties of the obtained zinc oxide was characterized using x-ray diffractometer, field emission scanning electron microscopy, thermogravimetric analysis and optical properties was characterized using UV-visible spectroscopy, photoluminescence and raman spectroscopy.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.23-23
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• 2009

GaN-based nitride semiconductors have attracted considerable attention in high-brightness light-emitting-diodes (LEDs) and laser diodes (LDs) covering from green to ultraviolet spectral range. LED and LD heterostructures are usually grown on (0001)-$Al_2O_3$. The large lattice mismatch between $Al_2O_3$ substrates and the GaN layers leads to a high density of defects(dislocations and stacking faults). Moreover, Ga and N atoms are arranged along the polar [0001] crystallographic direction, which leads to spontaneous polarization. In addition, in the InGaN/GaN MQWs heterostructures, stress applied along the same axis can also give rise to piezoelectric polarization. The total polarization, which is the sum of spontaneous and piezoelectric polarizations, is aligned along the [0001] direction of the wurtzite heterostructures. The change in the total polarization across the heterolayers results in high interface charge densities and spatial separation of the electron and hole wave functions, redshifting the photoluminescence peak and decreasing the peak intensity. The effect of polarization charges in the GaN-based heterostructures can be eliminated by growing along the non-polar [$11\bar{2}0$] (a-axis) or [$1\bar{1}00$] (m-axis) orientation instead of thecommonly used polar [0001] (c-axis). For non-polar GaN growth on non-polar substrates, the GaN films have high density of planar defects (basal stacking fault BSFs, prismatic stacking fault PSFs), because the SFs are formed on the basal plane (c-plane) due to their low formation energy. A significant reduction in defect density was recently achieved by applying blocking layer such as SiN, AlN, and AlGaN in non-polar GaN. In this work, we were performed systematic studies of the defects in the nonpolar GaN by conventional and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy.