Papers by Author: Hyun Ah Park

Abstract: Ternary Ti-Zr-N thin films were synthesized by rf-reactive sputtering in Ar–N2 plasma. Effects of the substrate temperature in the sputtering process on the microstructures of Ti-Zr-N thin films were investigated using SEM, TEM, XRD and AES techniques. The hardness of the Ti-Zr-N film increases as the substrate temperature in reactive sputtering increases. The reactive sputtered Ti-Zr-N film is characterized as polycrystalline in nature with two dominant orientations of (111) and (200). A substrate temperature of 300°C is suggested for getting a densely packed film structure with the highest hardness.

Abstract: Effects of plasma pretreatments to the TaSiN film surface on Cu nucleation were investigated. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to measure the Cu nucleation density and to observe the morphology of the Cu film. X-ray spectroscopy (XPS) and Auger depth profiling analyses were used to investigate the bonding state of atoms and the concentrations of oxygen and nitrogen at the TaSiN film surface, respectively. Cu nucleation in Cu MOCVD is effectively enhanced by treating the underlying Ta-Si-N film surface with hydrogen plasma prior to Cu MOCVD. The Cu nucleation density in Cu MOCVD increases as the rf-power and the plasma exposure time increase in the hydrogen plasma pretreatment, but it is saturated at the rf-power of 40W and the plasma exposure time of 2min. To increase the rf-power and the plasma exposure time further would increase the plasma radiation damage for the Si substrate. Therefore, 40W and 2min are the optimal process conditions for the hydrogen pretreatment. Copper nucleation is enhanced by hydrogen plasma pretreatment because the plasma treatment removes the nitrogen and oxygen atoms from the Ta-Si-N film surface. Since Ta-Si is a substrate more favorable for Cu nucleation than Ta-Si-N(O), Cu nucleation on the Ta-Si-N film is enhanced by hydrogen plasma pretreatment of the Ta-Si-N film surface.

Abstract: Al doped ZnO (AZO) films were deposited on porous silicon (PS) substrates by a reactive rf-cosputtering process from two targets of ZnO and Al. The effect of ZnO target rf-sputtering power on the structural and photoluminescence (PL) properties of AZO/PS heterojunctions were studied. Strong monochromatic blue emission located at 2.78 eV was observed for the AZO films deposited at 150 W. Freshly prepared PS showed an emission band in the green spectral region. We show that deposition of AZO on PS does not degrade the skeleton of the PS and enhance the PL intensity. The PL band shifted to the high energy for AZO films deposited on PS and the intensity became stable.