A Y6-xCa1.5xSi11N20O:Ce3+(x=2.5) oxynitride phosphor is synthesized at 1,750 oC in a mixed gas atmosphere of 5% H2 and 95 % N2 by using YN, Ca3N2, Si3N4, and CeO2 as raw material reagents. The crystal structure is a trigonal crystal system that has a P31c (no.159) space group and has lattice parameters of a, b = 9.8876(3), and c = 10.6806(4). This structure is an Er6Si11N20O structure type in which a Y6-xCa1.5xSi11N20O structure is formed by substituting a trivalent Y3+ element and a bivalent Ca2+ element at the position of Er element having an oxidation number of +3. Here, the charge difference caused by different oxidation numbers is balanced by the occupancy of a partially vacant 2c site and an O/N anion ratio in the Er6Si11N20O structure type. The Y6-xCa1.5xSi11N20O:Ce3+ (x = 2.5) phosphor is yellow powder with yellow luminescence; performing Rietveld refinement on the phosphor on the basis of the data obtained by XRD measurement results in the lattice parameters as described above. The Y6-xCa1.5xSi11N20O:Ce3+ (x = 2.5) phosphor has a broad emission band due to Ce3+ as an activator with the center wavelength of 565 nm. This phosphor has a broader emission band than a YAG:Ce3+ phosphor, which is a representative LED phosphor, and thus extends further into the blue and red spectrum ranges. Accordingly, this phosphor is an interesting phosphor that can be used for 1pc-LED with an improved color rendering index.

This study investigates the microstructural properties of CoCrFeMnNi high entropy alloy (HEA) oxynitride thin film. The HEA oxynitride thin film is grown by the magnetron sputtering method using nitrogen and oxygen gases. The grown CoCrFeMnNi HEA film shows a microstructure with nanocrystalline regions of 5~20 nm in the amorphous region, which is confirmed by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM). From the TEM electron diffraction pattern analysis crystal structure is determined to be a face centered cubic (FCC) structure with a lattice constant of 0.491 nm, which is larger than that of CoCrFeMnNi HEA. The HEA oxynitride film shows a single phase in which constituting elements are distributed homogeneously as confirmed by element mapping using a Cs-corrected scanning TEM (STEM). Mechanical properties of the CoCrFeMnNi HEA oxynitride thin film are addressed by a nano indentation method, and a hardness of 8.13 GPa and a Young’s modulus of 157.3 GPa are obtained. The observed high hardness value is thought to be the result of hardening due to the nanocrystalline microstructure.

The properties of zinc oxynitride semiconductors and their associated thin film transistors are studied. Reactively sputtered zinc oxynitride films exhibit n-type conduction, and nitrogen-rich compositions result in relatively high electron mobility. Nitrogen vacancies are anticipated to act as shallow electron donors, as their calculated formation energy is lowest among the possible types of point defects. The carrier density can be reduced by substituting zinc with metals such as gallium or aluminum, which form stronger bonds with nitrogen than zinc does. The electrical properties of gallium-doped zinc oxynitride thin films and their respective devices demonstrate the carrier suppression effect accordingly.

Silicon oxynitride that can be deposited two times faster than general SiNx:H layer was applied to fabricate the passivation protection layer of atomic layer deposition (ALD) Al2O3. The protection layer is deposited by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition to protect Al2O3 passivation layer from a high temperature metallization process for contact firing in screen-printed silicon solar cell. In this study, we studied passivation performance of ALD Al2O3 film as functions of process temperature and RF plasma effect in plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition system. Al2O3/SiON stacks coated at 400 oC showed higher lifetime values in the as-stacked state. In contrast, a high quality Al2O3/SiON stack was obtained with a plasma power of 400 W and a capping-deposition temperature of 200 oC after the firing process. The best lifetime was achieved with stack films fired at 850 oC. These results demonstrated the potential of the Al2O3/SiON passivated layer for crystalline silicon solar cells.

In this study, we analyzed the effect of silicon oxynitride matrix on the optical properties of Au nanoparticles dispersed on composite film and explored the effectiveness of the silicon in fine tuning the refractive index of the composite film for applications in optical waveguide devices. The atomic fraction of nitrogen in SiOxNy films was controlled by varying the relative flow ratio of nitrogen gas in reactive sputtering and was evaluated optically using an effective medium theory with Bruggeman geometry consisting of a random mixture between SiO2 and Si3N4. The Au nanoparticles were embedded in the SiOxNy matrix by employing the alternating deposition technique and clearly showed an absorption peak due to the excitation of surface plasmon. With increasing nitrogen atomic fraction in the matrix, the surface plasmon resonance wavelength shifted to a longer wavelength (a red-shift) with an enhanced resonance absorption. These characteristics were interpreted using the Maxwell-Garnett effective medium theory. The formation of a guided mode in a slab waveguide consisting of 3 μm thick Au:SiOxNy nanocomposite film was confirmed at the telecommunication wavelength of 1550 nm by prism coupler method and compared with the case of using SiO2 matrix. The use of SiOxNy matrix provides an effective way of controlling the mode confinement while maintaining or even enhancing the surface plasmon resonance properties.

Si(100) 웨이퍼를 사용하여 RTP 장비에서 O2와 N2O 분위기에서 8nm의 oxynitride를 제조 하였다. 기존의 로(furnace) 열산화막과 비교해서 oxynitride는 I-V, TDDB 특성이 우수하였고, flat-band voltage shift도 적었으며 BF2이온 주입에 의한 붕소 투과 억제 특성도 우수하다. 유전상수는 oxynitride가 열산화막에 비해서 크다. Oxynitride는 순수한 SiO2유사하게 V 〉Φ0 구간에서 Fowler-Nordheim 터널링 특성을 나타낸다. SIMS, AES, 그리고 XPS 분석 결과 질소 pile-up이 SiO2/Si 계면에서 나타나고, 이것은 oxynitride 산화막 특성 향상과 깊은 관련이 있다.