• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.301-307
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• 2012

SiAlON glasses are silicates or alumino-silicates, containing Mg, Ca, Y or rare earth (RE) ions as modifiers, in which nitrogen atoms substitute for oxygen atoms in the glass network. These glasses are found as intergranular films and at triple point junctions in silicon nitride ceramics and these grain boundary phases affect their fracture behaviour. This paper provides an overview of the preparation of M-SiAlON glasses and outlines the effects of composition on properties. As nitrogen substitutes for oxygen in SiAlON glasses, increases are observed in glass transition temperatures, viscosities, elastic moduli and microhardness. These property changes are compared with known effects of grain boundary glass chemistry in silicon nitride ceramics. Oxide sintering additives provide conditions for liquid phase sintering, reacting with surface silica on the $Si_3N_4$ particles and some of the nitride to form SiAlON liquid phases which on cooling remain as intergranular glasses. Thermal expansion mismatch between the grain boundary glass and the silicon nitride causes residual stresses in the material which can be determined from bulk SiAlON glass properties. The tensile residual stresses in the glass phase increase with increasing Y:Al ratio and this correlates with increasing fracture toughness as a result of easier debonding at the glass/${\beta}-Si_3N_4$ interface.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1997.07d
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• pp.1361-1363
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• 1997

Zinc oxide-based MOV was fabricated with $SiO_2$ additive ranging from 0.5 to 4.0 mol%, and the microstructure and electrical characteristics were investigated. $Zn_2SiO_4$ phase formed by $SiO_2$ additive was distributed at ZnO grains, grain boundaries, and multiple grain junctions. As the content of $SiO_2$ additive increases, average grain size decreased from 40.6 to $26.9{\mu}m$ due to the Pinning effect by $Zn_2SiO_4$ at grain boundaries Breakdown voltage and nonlinear exponent increased, and leakage current decreased in the range of $11.2{\sim}6.14{\mu}A$ with an increasing $SiO_2$. Donor concentration and interface state density decreased, and barrier height increased in the range of $0.71{\sim}1.04eV$ with an increasing $SiO_2$. While, as the content of $SiO_2$ additive, apparent dielectric constant decreased, peak frequency of dissipation factor decreased in the range of $6.45{\times}10^5{\sim}3.00{\times}10^5Hz$, and dissipation peak was $0.31{\sim}0.22$ at Peak frequency.

• Proceedings of the Korea Institute of Applied Superconductivity and Cryogenics Conference
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• 1999.02a
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• pp.3-9
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• 1999

The grain morphology, the changes in morphology and Jc with the thermo-mechanical treatment (TMT) history, the field dependence of Jc and the nature of intergranular bonding were studied in $T_{10.8}$$Pb_{.2}$$Bi_{0.2}$$Sr_{1.8}$$Ba_{0.2}$$Ca_{2.2}$$Cu_{3}$$O_{z}$/Ag tapes. As a result, incorporation of intermediate rolling during the final heat-treatment resulted in of plate-like TI-1223 grains, and thus enhanced Jc. Jc's near 2.5$\times$104 A/cm2 at 77 K and 0 T were obtained in just rolled tapes with an excellent reproducibility. The high Jc's seem to grain-connectivity easy recovery of excellent grain-connectivity during final heat-treatment after inter -mediate rolling, probably due to retarded T1 evaporation and excessive Ca content in the present composition. The strong field dependence of Jc even in low fields, however, indicated that there still existed significant weak-links and the degree of directional grain-alignment was far from the desired one. The intergranular binding in the tapes seemed to be mainly dominated by SIS junctions.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2010

In this study, a convergent heat treatment was performed in certain temperature regions in order to control the microstructures of Nd-rich phases and to reduce thermal stress on grain boundaries which could be caused during expansion and shrinkage of Nd-rich and $Nd_2Fe_{14}B$ phases. The difference of thermal expansion coefficient between $Nd_2Fe_{14}B$ and Nd-rich phases is the mechanism for convergent heat treatment. The Nd-rich phases which were located in junctions could penetrate into the grain boundaries between $Nd_2Fe_{14}B$ phases due to the difference of thermal expansion coefficient. Through the convergent heat treatment, the microcracks that were observed in cyclic heat treatment were not observed and coercivity was increased to 34.05 kOe at 8 cycles.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.56 no.1
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• pp.104-110
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• 2019

The low-temperature sintering behavior of AlN was investigated through a conventional method. $CaF_2$, CuO and Cu were selected as additives based on their low melting points. When sintered at $1600^{\circ}C$ for 8 h in $N_2$ atmosphere, a sample density > 98% was obtained. The X-ray data indicated that eutectic reactions below $1200^{\circ}C$ were found. Therefore, the current systems have lower liquid formation temperatures than other systems. The liquid phase showed high dihedral angles at triple grain junctions, indicating that the liquid had poor wettability on the grain surfaces. Eventually, the liquid was likely to vaporize due to the unfavorable wetting condition. As a result, a microstructure with clean grain boundaries was obtained, resulting in higher contiguity between grains. From EDS analysis, oxygen impurity seems to be well removed in AlN lattice. Therefore, it is believed that the current systems are beneficial for reducing sintering temperature and improving oxygen removal.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.4 no.6
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• pp.681-686
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• 1994

Microwave Detector Using $YBa_{2}Cu_{3}O_{7-x}$, Grain Boundary Junction $YBa_{2}Cu_{3}O_{7-x}$ superconductor thin films were deposited on $LaAIO_{3}$ (100) single crystal substrates using a metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) method. These films showed the critical temperature of about 9OK and critical current density of over $10^5/A \textrm{cm}^2$at 77K. These films showed granular structure with 0.5~1.5$\mu \textrm{m}$ grains. Bridge-type junctions, 6$\mu \textrm{m}$ in width and 6pm in length, were fabricated using the photolithography and the Ar ion milling techniques. Current-voltage (I-V) characteristics of these junctions with the microwave irradiation at 77K were studied. The critical current densities decreased as the irradiated microwave power increased. When microwaves were irradiated on the bridge at 77K. the I-V charateristics showed constant voltage stcp(Shapiro steps) at $\Delta$=nho/2e.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.119-125
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• 2020

One of the promising candidates for accident-tolerant fuel (ATF), a ceramic microcell fuel, which can be distinguished by an unusual cell-like microstructure (UO₂ grain cell surrounded by a doped oxide cell wall), is being developed. This study deals with the microstructural observation of the constituent phases and the wetting behaviors of the cell wall materials in three kinds of ceramic microcell UO₂ pellets: Si-Ti-O (STO), Si-Cr-O (SCO), and Al-Si-Ti-O (ASTO). The chemical and physical states of the cell wall materials are estimated by HSC Chemistry and confirmed by experiment to be mixtures of Si-O and Ti-O for the STO; Si-O and Cr-O for SCO; and Si-O, Ti-O, and Al-Si-O for the ASTO. From their morphology at triple junctions, UO₂ grains appear to be wet by the Si-O or Al-Si-O rather than other oxides, providing a benefit on the capture-ability of the ceramic microcell cell wall. The wetting behavior can be explained by the relationships between the interface energy and the contact angle.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.471.2-471.2
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• 2014

We demonstrate here that an improvement in precursor film density (green density) leads to a great enhancement in the photovoltaic performance of CuInSe2 (CISe) thin film solar cells fabricated with Cu-In nanoparticle precursor films via chemical solution deposition. A cold-isostatic pressing (CIP) technique was applied to uniformly compress the precursor film over the entire surface (measuring 3~4 cm2) and was found to increase its relative density (particle packing density) by ca. 20%, which resulted in an appreciable improvement in the microstructural features of the sintered CISe film in terms of lower porosity, reduced grain boundaries, and a more uniform surface morphology. The low-bandgap (Eg=1.0 eV) CISe PV devices with the CIP-treated film exhibited greatly enhanced open-circuit voltage (VOC, from 0.265 V to 0.413 V) and fill factor (FF, from 0.34 to 0.55), as compared to the control devices. As a consequence, an almost 3-fold increase in the average power conversion efficiency, 3.0 to 8.2% (with the highest value of 9.02%), was realized without an anti-reflection coating. A diode analysis revealed that the enhanced VOC and FF were essentially attributed to the reduced reverse saturation current density (j0) and diode ideality factor (n). This is associated with the suppressed recombination, likely due to the reduction in recombination sites such as grain/air surfaces (pores), inter-granular interfaces, and defective CISe/CdS junctions in the CIP-treated device. From the temperature dependences of VOC, it was confirmed that the CIP-treated devices suffer less from interface recombination.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.135-139
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• 2009

$H_2S$ micro-gas sensors have been developed employing $SnO_2$:CuO composite thin films. The films were prepared by e-beam evaporation of Sn and Cu metals on silicon substrates, followed by oxidation at high temperatures. Results of various studies, such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) reveal that $SnO_2$ and CuO are mutually non-reactive. The CuO grains, which in turn reside in the inter-granular regions of $SnO_2$, inhibit grain growth of $SnO_2$ as well as forming a network of p-n junctions. The film showed more than a 90% relative resistance change when exposed to $H_2S$ gas at 1 ppm in air at an operating temperature of $350^{\circ}C$ and had a short response time of 8 sec.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2010.05a
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• pp.11.2-11.2
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• 2010

Photovoltaic devices are promising candidates as affordable and large-area renewable energy sources, which can replace the fossil-fuel-based resources. Especially, thin film solar cells have attracted increasing research attention, since they have a great advantage of low production cost. From the physical point of view, the photovoltaic devices can provide us interesting questions, how to enhance the light absorption and the carrier collection efficiency. A lot of approaches would be possible to address these issues. We have focused on two major topics relevant to photovoltaic device physics; (1) light management using surface plasmons and (2) junction characterizations aiming at proper interface engineering. Regarding the first topic, we have investigated the influences of Ag under-layer morphology on optical properties of ZnO thin films. The experimental results suggested that coupling between the surface plasmon polaritons at the ZnO/Ag interface and excitons in ZnO should play important roles in reflectivity of the ZnO/Ag thin films, which are widely used back reflector structures in thin film solar cells. For the second topic, we have carried out scanning probe microscopy studies of Schottky junctions consisting of photovoltaic materials. Such a research is very helpful to understand the correlation between the defects (e.g., grain boundaries) and local electrical properties. We will introduce some of the recent experimental results and discuss the physical significance.