Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) suffer from efficiency limitations due to interfacial charge recombination at the TiO₂/dye/electrolyte interface. In this study, aminopropyltrimethoxysilane (APS) was introduced onto nanoporous TiO₂ photoelectrodes via a dip-coating process with controlled coating times to investigate the effect of silanization time on interfacial charge transport behavior. Unlike concentration-driven structural modification, this work focuses on the evolution of the APS-modified interface governed by reaction time. The DSSC with 30 min APS treatment exhibited the highest power conversion efficiency of 5.34%, representing a 19% enhancement compared to the untreated device (4.49%), mainly due to increased short-circuit current density and open-circuit voltage. However, prolonged coating times (2 h and 24 h) resulted in a significant decrease in photocurrent density, leading to reduced device performance despite partial improvement in recombination resistance. These results are attributed to the time-dependent evolution of the APS interfacial layer. At moderate coating time, APS provides effective surface functionalization, enhancing dye adsorption and suppressing interfacial recombination. In contrast, prolonged coating is expected to induce increased surface coverage and silane condensation, which can hinder electron injection and increase charge transport resistance. Therefore, the photovoltaic performance is governed by a trade-off between recombination suppression and charge injection efficiency, controlled by the silanization time. This study highlights the critical role of interfacial reaction kinetics in determining charge transport behavior and provides an effective strategy for optimizing DSSC performance through time-dependent interface engineering.

Quantum dots (QDs) are semiconductor nanocrystals with sizes on the order of several nanometers, whose bandgaps can be tuned by controlling the particle size. Owing to this bandgap tunability, QDs can absorb near-infrared (NIR) and short-wave infrared (SWIR) light, spectral regions that are difficult to access with conventional silicon-based devices. However, colloidal QDbased infrared photodetectors still suffer from intrinsically high dark current, trap-induced noise, and limited response speed. As a result, they exhibit fundamental performance gaps in terms of detectivity and speed–bandwidth product compared to epitaxial infrared detectors, highlighting the need for structural and architectural design strategies to overcome these limitations. In this review, we discuss recent advances in enhancing the spectral selectivity and sensitivity of infrared photodetectors through three-dimensional optical architectures, including metasurfaces and metamaterials. We focus in particular on design strategies and the underlying mechanisms responsible for performance enhancement, and we outline how structural approaches can be leveraged to effectively control the sensitivity and wavelength selectivity of QD-based infrared detectors.

Organic photovoltaics (OPVs) are attractive candidates for sustainable energy conversion due to their flexibility, lowcost processing, and compatibility with large-area fabrication. However, their efficiency is hindered by interfacial defects and vertical phase separation in the active layer, which induce charge imbalance and recombination losses. This work presents an interfacial engineering approach to overcome these limitations in P3HT:PC₇₀BM-based OPVs. Two key strategies were employed: (i) reducing the post-deposition annealing time of the active layer to suppress PC₇₀BM accumulation at the bottom electrode, and (ii) using a DCB:DCM mixed solvent system to regulate solvent evaporation, thereby promoting uniform film formation during PC₇₀BM overlay deposition. Devices fabricated with these optimizations exhibited notable enhancements, achieving short-circuit current density up to 15.83 mA/cm² and a 58.1% increase in power conversion efficiency compared to control devices. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy confirmed reduced surface aggregation of PC₇₀BM, while X-ray diffraction indicated improved P3HT crystallinity and molecular ordering. These results highlight the critical role of interfacial and morphological control in enhancing charge separation and transport, offering a practical route toward efficient, reproducible, and stable OPVs.

Al-Mo thin films were fabricated using combinatorial sputtering system to realize highly sensitive surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices. The Al-Mo sample library was grown with various chemical compositions and electrical resistivities, which provided important information for selecting the most suitable materials for SAW devices. As the SAWs generated from piezoelectric materials are significantly affected by the resistivity and density of the interdigital transducer (IDT) electrodes, three types of Al-Mo thin films with different Al contents were fabricated. The thickness of the Al-Mo thin film used in the SAW-IDT electrode was fixed at 150 nm. As the Al content of the Al-Mo thin film decreased from 81.2 to 30.3 at%, the resistivity decreased slightly from 5.43±0.15 to 4.87±0.1×10^-5 Ω-cm, whereas the calculated density increased significantly from 4.1 to 7.9 g/㎤. The SAW device composed of Al-Mo IDT electrodes resonated at 143 MHz without frequency shifts; however, the selectivity of the resonant frequency and insertion loss deteriorated as the Al content decreased. This suggest that the resonant characteristics of the SAW devices fabricated with Al-Mo thin films were more strongly influenced by the material density rather than the electrical properties of the IDT electrodes.

This study investigates the effects of chemical etching for anti-glare (AG) treatment and the subsequent deposition of a TiZrO₂/SiO₂ double-layer anti-reflection (AR) coating on glass surfaces. The AG treatment was performed using ammonium fluoride in gel form via screen printing, followed by electron beam deposition of SiO₂/TiZrO₂ layers. The surface roughness, optical transmittance, and refractive index were analyzed. The results revealed that while the surface roughness increased with larger screen patterns during the AG treatment, it was reduced by the deposition of the AR layers. Additionally, the gloss caused by external light was higher with lower surface roughness, but it was effectively reduced by the AR coating. The optical reflectance showed minimal changes during the AG treatment, remaining similar to that of bare glass substrates. However, the AR coating significantly decreased reflectance. The combination of AG treatment and AR coating improved optical transmittance and reduced gloss, making this method beneficial for enhancing visibility in automotive displays. The findings suggest that this approach can mitigate the impact of external light and improve the clarity of displayed information, making it suitable for automotive display applications.

Recent studies have focused on enhancing the efficiency of triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) using aluminum (Al) and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). This research investigates how surface morphology and material structure affect energy generation. By layering PDMS/Al and creating pyramid-shaped patterns, the study found that increasing the number of PDMS/Al layers significantly boosts the output voltage, reaching over 234 mV with three layers. Additionally, increasing the number of pyramid structures from 1 to 36 on PDMS surfaces, while maintaining the same contact area, led to a notable rise in generated voltage due to charge concentration at the pyramid tips. Higher pyramid angles also amplified this effect. These results highlight the importance of structural optimization in maximizing the energy output of TENGs, offering a promising route for more efficient energy harvesting.

Physically Unclonable Functions (PUFs) provide a high level of security for private keys using unique physical characteristics of hardware. However, fabricating PUF chips requires numerous semiconductor processes, leading to high costs, which limits their applications. In this work, we introduce a low-cost manufacturing method for PUF security chips. First, surface roughening through wet-etching is utilized to create random variables. Additionally, physical vapor deposition is added to further enhance randomness. After PUF chip fabrication, both Hamming distance (HD) and Hamming weight (HW) are extracted and compared to verify the fabricated chip. It is confirmed that the PUF chip using two different multiple process variables demonstrates superior uniqueness and uniformity compared to the PUF security chip fabricated using only a single process variable.

Precise control over the morphology of nanostructures is critical for tailoring their physical and chemical properties. This study addresses the challenge of developing a simple, integrated method for synthesizing both 1D and 2D colloidal Cu nanostructures in a single system, achieving successful tuning of their localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) properties. A facile hydrothermal synthesis utilizing potassium iodide (KI) and hexadecylamine (HDA) is presented for controlling Cu nanostructure morphologies. The key to achieving 1D nanowires (NWs) and 2D nanoplates (NPs) depends on the controlled adsorption of HDA molecules and iodide (I-) ions on specific crystal facets. Depending on the morphologies, the resultant Cu nanostructures exhibit tunable LSPR peaks from 558 nm [nanoplates (NPs)] to 590 nm [nanowires (NWs)]. These results pave the way for the scalable and cost-effective production of plasmonic Cu nanostructures with tunable optical properties, holding promise for applications in sensing, catalysis, and photonic devices.

Oxide semiconductor gas sensors are widely used for detecting toxic, explosive, and flammable gases due to their simple structure, cost-effectiveness, and potential integration into compact devices. However, their reliable gas detection is hindered by a longstanding issue known as humidity dependence, wherein the sensor resistance and gas response change significantly in the presence of moisture. This problem has persisted since the inception of oxide semiconductor gas sensors in the 1960s. This paper explores the root causes of humidity dependence in oxide semiconductor gas sensors and presents strategies to address this challenge. Mitigation strategies include functionalizing the gas-sensing material with noble metal/transition metal oxides and rare-earth/rare-earth oxides, as well as implementing a moisture barrier layer to prevent moisture diffusion into the gas-sensing film. Developing oxide semiconductor gas sensors immune to humidity dependence is expected to yield substantial socioeconomic benefits by enabling medical diagnosis, food quality assessment, environmental monitoring, and sensor network establishment.

This work focuses on improving the light-harvesting efficiency of thin-film silicon solar cells through innovative multi-architecture surface modifications. To create a regular optical structure, a lithographic process was performed to form it on a glass substrate through various etching processes, from Etch-1 to Etch-3. AZO was deposited on top of the structures and re-etched to create a multi-architectural surface. These surface-modified structures improved the light absorption and overall performance of the solar cell through changes in optical and physical properties, which we will analyze. In addition, we investigated the effect of post-cleaning on the etched glass structures through EDX analysis to understand the mechanism of the etching action. The results of this study are expected to provide important guidelines for the design and fabrication of solar cells and other photovoltaic devices.

Low road lighting is a lighting device that complements the shortcomings of existing pillar-type street lights. It is a lighting device that emits light from the side of the road surface and adjusts the luminance of the road surface like a light carpet. In this paper, to achieve full commercialization, we analyzed the luminance of the installed road surface and studied whether lighting could replace existing road lighting. In this study, the LMK (Luminance Measurement Camera) LABSOFT program was used to measure and analyze the surface luminance of road lighting, and the RELUX program was used to evaluate and analyze the simulation performance to determine light-based lighting conditions. A study was conducted to determine whether replacing pillar-type road lighting with low-level road lighting in a real environment would ensure comfortable and safe night vision for drivers at night.

As complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) is scaled down to achieve higher chip density, thin-film layers have been deposited iteratively. The poor film uniformity resulting from deposition or chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) significantly affects chip yield. Therefore, the development of novel fabrication processes to enhance film uniformity is required. In this context, high-pressure deuterium annealing (HPDA) is proposed to reduce the surface roughness resulting from the CMP. The HPDA is carried out in a diluted deuterium atmosphere to achieve cost-effectiveness while maintaining high pressure. To confirm the effectiveness of HPDA, time-of-flight secondary-ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) are employed. It is confirmed that the absorbed deuterium gas facilitates the diffusion of silicon atoms, thereby reducing surface roughness.

Piezoelectric actuators, which utilize piezoelectric crystals or ceramics, are commonly used in precision positioning applications, offering high-speed response and precise control. However, the use of low-performance ceramics and expensive single crystals is limiting their versatile use in the actuator market, necessitating the development of both high-performance and cost-effective piezoelectric materials capable of delivering higher forces and displacements. The use of textured Pb (lead)-based piezoelectric ceramics formed by so-called templated grain growth method has been identified as a promising strategy to address the performance and cost issue. This review article provides insights into recent advances in texturing Pb-based piezoelectric ceramics for improved performance in actuation applications. We discussed the relevant issues in detail focusing on current challenges and emerging trends in the textured piezoelectric ceramics for their reliability and performance in actuator applications. We discussed in detail focusing on current challenges and emerging trends of textured piezoelectric ceramics for their reliability and performance in actuator applications. In conclusion, the article provides an outlook on the future direction of textured piezoelectric ceramics in actuator applications, highlighting the potential for further success in this field.

Owing to carbon materials’ diverse functionalization and versatility, the design and synthesis of carbon-based three-dimensional porous structures have become important foundational research topics across various fields. Among the various methods for producing porous carbon structures, laser-induced graphene (LIG) has garnered attention because of its large surface area, controllable structure, excellent electrical conductivity, scalability, and eco-friendly synthesis process. In addition, recent research results have reported more novel functionalities by advancing further from the unique characteristics of LIG through functionalization or compounding of LIG, making it an attractive material for various applications in electronic devices, sensing, catalysis, and energy storage. This review aims to update the research trends in LIG and its functionalization, providing insights to inspire more interesting studies on functional LIG to expand its potential applications ultimately. Starting with the synthesis method and material characteristics of LIG, we introduce the functionalization of LIG, which is classified into surface modification, heteroatom doping, and hybridization based on the interaction mechanism. Finally, we summarize and discuss the prospects of LIG and its functionalization.

Generally, diamond-like carbon films (a-C:H, DLC) have been shown to have a low coefficient of friction, a high hardness and a low wear rate. Pd-doped C thin film was fabricated using a dual magnetron sputtering with two targets of graphite and palladium. Graphite target RF power was fixed and palladium target RF power was varied. The structural, physical, and surface properties of the deposited thin film were investigated, and the correlation among these properties was examined. The doping ratio of Pd increased as the RF power increased, and the surface roughness of the thin film decreased somewhat as the RF power increased. In addition, the hardness value of the thin film increased, and the adhesive strength was improved. It was confirmed that the value of the contact angle indicating the surface energy increases as the RF power increases. It was concluded that the increase in RF power contributed to the improvement of the physical properties of Pd-doped C thin film.

We present the structural and optical properties of Au@TiO₂ core-shell microsphere structure prepared by a hydrothermal synthesis method. As a way to improve the efficiency of organic solar cells, the Au@TiO₂ core-shell microsphere was synthesized to use the local surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) phenomenon. The synthesized results were confirmed to have the Au@TiO₂ core-shell structure using a high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. An absorption was observed to occur at 527 nm belonging to the visible light region using a visible light spectroscopy, which supports the LSPR phenomenon. We suggest that the Au@TiO₂ core-shell microsphere is highly likely to be applied to organic solar cells including dye-sensitized solar cells. In addition, we expect it to be widely used not only in the energy but also in the bio as well as in the environmental fields.

In this work, the effect of sputtering working pressure for the tellurium film and its thin-film transistor was investigated. The transfer characteristics of tellurium thin-film transistors were improved by increasing the working pressure during sputtering process. As increasing working pressure, physical and optical properties of Te films such as crystallinity, transmittance, and surface roughness were improved. Therefore, the improved transfer characteristics of Te thin-film transistors may originate from both improved interface properties between the silicon oxide gate dielectric layer and the tellurium active layer with an improved quality of Te film. In conclusion, the control of working pressure during sputtering would be important for obtaining highperformance tellurium-based thin film transistor.

In the case of ZnO:Al thin films, it is the best material that can replace ITO that is mainly used as a transparent electrode in electronic devices such as solar cells and flat-panel displays. In this study, ZnO:Al films were fabricated by using the RF dual magnetron sputtering method at various substrate temperatures. As the substrate temperature increased, the crystallinity of the ZnO:Al thin films was improved, and the electrical conductivity and electrical properties of the thin film improved owing to the increase in grain size. In addition, the surface roughness of the ZnO:Al thin films increased due to changes in the surface and density of the thin films. Moreover, the substrate temperature increased the density of thin films and improved their transmittance. To be applied to solar cells and other several electronic devices in the future, the hardness and adhesion properties of the thin film improve as the substrate temperature increases.

In this study, we tried finding new materials to improve the stain resistance properties of polymer insulating materials. Using the filtered vacuum arc source (FVAS) with a graphite target source, DLC thin films were deposited on silicon and polymer insulator substrates depending on their thickness to confirm the surface properties, physical properties, and structural properties of the thin films. Subsequently, the possibility of using a DLC thin film as a protective coating material for polymer insulators was confirmed. DLC thin films manufactured in accordance with the thickness of various thin films exhibited a very smooth and uniform surface. As the thin film thickness increased, the surface roughness value decreased and the contact angle value increased. In addition, the elastic modulus and hardness of the DLC thin film slightly increased, and the maximum values of elastic modulus and hardness were 214.5 GPa and 19.8 GPa, respectively. In addition, the DLC thin film showed a very low leakage current value, thereby exhibiting electrical insulation properties.

In this paper, we investigated the surface properties of polymer insulators to improve electrical insulation performance. First, after washing the polymer insulator in various ways, its contact angle was increased, thereby improving the hydrophobic properties and electrical insulation properties. In addition, TiO₂ thin films, which have been used as a photocatalytic material and have been applied to the polymer insulator surface of to enhance the surface and electrical insulating properties. For the sputtering method, the contact angle after coating the TiO₂ thin film increased with increasing RF power, but it was lower compared to that before coating, indicating that the hydrophobic properties of the surface were slightly deteriorated. Consequently, the electrical properties of the polymer-insulating material were maintained or improved after the TiO₂ thin-film coating.

An 80 nm thick zinc aluminate thin film was deposited on a glass substrate via radio-frequency (rf) magnetron sputtering and heat treated to analyze changes in the wetting angles due to a surface modification. The thin films were modified from hydrophilic to hydrophobic by a simple thermal treatment. The surface modification from a heat treatment increased the wetting angles up to 111°, which was explained by the relationship with the excess surface area. The wetting angles of the annealed thin films decreased with increasing exposure time under ambient conditions, which was attributed to the oxygen vacancies in the films that were introduced during deposition. The annealed thin films were treated by ionized oxygen via oxygen plasma. After the oxygen plasma treatment, the decreased wetting angles were maintained at ~95° for 11 days.

The wettability of silicon carbide (SiC) crystal, which has 6H-SiC and 4H-SiC regions prepared using the physical vapor transport (PVT) method, is quantitatively analyzed using dispensed deionized (DI) water droplets. Regardless of the polytypes in SiC, the average of five contact angle measurements showed a difference of about 6° between the Si-face and C-face. The contact angle on the Si-face (C-face) is measured after the removal of the native oxide using BOE (6:1), and revealed a significant decrease of the contact angle from 74.9° (68.4°) to 47.7° (49.3°) and from 75.8° (70.2°) to 51.6° (49.5°) for the 4H-SiC and 6H-SiC regions, respectively. The contact angle of the Si-face recovered over time during room temperature oxidation in air; in contrast, that of the C-face did not recover to the initial value. This study shows that the contact angle is very sensitive to SiC surface polarity, specific surface conditions, and process time. Contact angle measurements are expected to be a rapid way of determining the surface polarity and wettability of SiC crystals.

Porcelain insulators are typically exposed to surface discharge and lightning impulse in service. This study investigates the insulation characteristics of the external and internal discharges of a porcelain insulator with respect to its flashover for a 154 kV transmission line. The experiments are also conducted using a wet flashover test and an impulse test based on the external discharge and the internal penetration, to classify the flashover voltage-time curve of the porcelain insulator. When an impulse with a strength of 2,500 kV/μs was applied three times to 6.5 mm ceramic samples, electrical penetration of approximately 70% occurred. The impulse experiment confirmed that the electrical penetration inside the porcelain insulator coincided with the area where the electric field was concentrated. The wet flashover voltage test revealed that the flashover threshold voltage increases by approximately 7% after cleaning of the surface.

A solvent free, highly concentrated silica-acryl monomer hybrid sol was synthesized using aqueous colloidal silica as a precursor. The effects of the silica particle size, type of surface treatment agent employed, and silica content on the formation of the hybrid sol were systematically studied. The optical and physical properties of the coating solution prepared using the hybrid sol were also characterized. The viscosity of the hybrid sol tended to decrease as the particle size of the silica and the molecular weight of the surface treatment agent increased. The PET substrate coated with MPTMS-Mix (mixture, 70 wt%) solution showed the highest surface hardness (6 H) and low surface roughness (Ra= 0.044 μm), which could be attributed to an increase in packing density caused by the infiltration of small particles into the pores formed between larger particles.

There is a need for the development of transparent conductive materials that are economical and environmentally friendly with exhibit low resistivity and high transmittance in the visible spectrum. In this study, the deposition rate and uniformity of Al-doped ZnO-thin films were improved by changing the Z-motion of the sputtering system. The deposition rate and the uniformity were determined to be 3.44 nm/min and 1.23%, respectively, under the 10 mm Z-motion condition. During O2 plasma treatment, the intrusion-type metal elements in the thin film were reduced, which contributed to an oxygen vacancy reduction in addition to structural stabilization. Moreover, the sheet resistance was more easily saturated.

We propose a method for improving the reliability of a solar cell by applying a fluorinated surface coating to protect the cell from the outdoor environment using an atmospheric pressure plasma (APP) treatment. An APP source is operated by radio frequency (RF) power, Ar gas, and O₂gas. APP treatment can remove organic contaminants from the surface and improve other surface properties such as the surface free energy. We determined the optimal APP parameters to maximize the surface free energy by using the dyne pen test. Then we used the scratch test in order to confirm the correlation between the APP parameters and the surface properties by measuring the surface free energy and adhesive characteristics of the coating. Consequently, an increase in the surface free energy of the cover glass caused an improvement in the adhesion between the coating layer and the cover glass. After treatment, adhesion between the coating and cover glass was improved by 35%.

In this study, e-beam equipment was used to form silver nanoparticles on thin films of TiO₂ to increase the efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells and improve the annealing process. TiO₂ thin films with nanoparticle photoelectrodes were fabricated in individual units for use in dye-sensitized solar cells. The characteristics of dye-sensitized solar cells were compared to those of the prepared TiO₂ photoelectrode with and without nanoparticles. The dye-sensitized solar cells with silver nanoparticles showed a significant increase in the electric current density compared with the pure TiO₂ dye-sensitized solar cell and improved the solar conversion efficiency to 27.89%. The increased density of electric current increased the extent of light absorption of the dye owing to the plasmon resonance of the nanoparticles at the local surfaces. This phenomenon led to increased light scattering, which in turn increased the current density of the dye-sensitized solar cells and improved the solar conversion efficiency.

Randomly patterned and wet chemical etching processes were used to treat anti-glare of display cover glasses. The surface and optical properties of grain size and surface morphology controlled by randomly patterned etching and wet chemical solution etching were investigated. The surface morphology and roughness of the etched samples were examined using a spectrophotometer and a portable surface roughness (Ra) measuring instrument, respectively. The gloss caused by reflection from the glass surface was measured at 60° using a gloss meter. The surface of the sample etched by the doctor-blade process was more uniform than that obtained from a screen pattern etching process at gel state etching process of the first step. The surface roughness obtained from the randomly patterned etching process depended greatly on the mesh size, which in turn affected the grain size and pattern formation. The surface morphology and gloss obtained by the etching process in the second step depended primarily on the mesh size of the gel state etching process of the first step. In our experimental range, the gloss increased on decreasing the grain size at a lower mesh size for the first step process and for longer reaction times for the second step process.

This work reports the surface morphology and transmittance of copper oxide thin films for semitransparent solar cell applications. We prepared the oxide specimens by subjecting copper thin films to an oxidation reaction at annealing temperatures ranging between 100℃ and 300℃. The color of the as-deposited specimen was red, but changed to purple at the annealing temperature of 300℃. The surface morphology and transmittance of the specimens were significantly dependent on the annealing temperature and thickness of the copper films. Copper oxide nanoparticles prepared from a 20-nm-thick copper film at an annealing temperature of 300℃ provided a maximum transmittance of 93%. The obtained optical characteristics and surface morphology suggest that copper oxide thin films prepared by an oxidation reaction can be potentially employed as color- and transmittance-adjusting layer in semitransparent thin solar cells.

We investigated solution-processed indium-zinc oxide (IZO) thin-film transistors (TFTs) by inserting a 2-(4- biphenylyl)-5-(4-tert-butylphenyl)-1,3,4-oxadiazole (PBD) buffer layer. This buffer layer efficiently tuned the energy level between the semiconducting oxide channel and metal electrode by increasing charge extraction, thereby enhancing the overall device performance: the IZO TFT with embedded PBD layer (thickness: 5 nm; width: 2,000 μm; length: 200 μm) exhibited a field-effect mobility of 1.31 cm²V^-1s^-1, threshold voltage of 0.12 V, subthreshold swing of 0.87 V decade^-1, and on/off current ratio of 9.28×10⁵.