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Competitive interplay of deposition and etching processes in atomic layer growth of cobalt and nickel metal films

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 November 2018

Alexander Sasinska ,
Jennifer Leduc Open the ORCID record for Jennifer Leduc [Opens in a new window] ,
Michael Frank ,
Lisa Czympiel ,
Thomas Fischer ,
Silke H. Christiansen  and
Sanjay Mathur
Alexander Sasinska
Affiliation:
Institute of Inorganic Chemistry, University of Cologne, Cologne D-50939, Germany
Jennifer Leduc
Affiliation:
Institute of Inorganic Chemistry, University of Cologne, Cologne D-50939, Germany
Michael Frank
Affiliation:
Institute of Inorganic Chemistry, University of Cologne, Cologne D-50939, Germany
Lisa Czympiel
Affiliation:
Institute of Inorganic Chemistry, University of Cologne, Cologne D-50939, Germany
Thomas Fischer
Affiliation:
Institute of Inorganic Chemistry, University of Cologne, Cologne D-50939, Germany
Silke H. Christiansen
Affiliation:
Institute of Nanoarchitectures for Energy Conversion, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie, Berlin D-14109, Germany; and Physics Department, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin D-14195, Germany
Sanjay Mathur*
Affiliation:
Institute of Inorganic Chemistry, University of Cologne, Cologne D-50939, Germany
*
a)Address all correspondence to this author. e-mail: sanjay.mathur@uni-koeln.de
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Abstract

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) of air stable cobalt and nickel complexes based on tridentate enaminones N,N-(4,4,4-trifluorobut-1-en-3-on)-dimethylethyldiamine (Htfb-dmeda) and N,N-(4,4,4-trifluorobut-1-en-3-on)-dimethylpropyldiamine (Htfb-dmpda) successfully produced metallic cobalt and nickel thin films. Detailed X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) studies on the binding interaction of the first precursor monolayer with the surface functional groups elucidated the chemisorption behavior of the new precursor systems. A reactive remote hydrogen plasma was used as the co-reactant to activate the precursor decomposition yielding metal hydroxide intermediates. Subsequent hydrogen plasma etching of as-deposited films resulted in phase-pure metallic films through a recrystallization process, verified by surface and sub-surface XPS. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) analyses revealed pinhole-free films, with low surface roughness (0.2 ± 0.06 nm root mean square, RMS) for both, cobalt and nickel thin films. Herein, the competitive role of hydrogen as etchant and reactant was demonstrated as prolonged plasma exposure time periods resulted in the formation of metal hydrides. This is mostly due to the catalytic dissociation of molecular hydrogen on transition metal surfaces, which already occurs upon low energy input.

Keywords

atomic layer depositionX-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS)surface reaction
Type
Article
Information
Journal of Materials Research , Volume 33 , Issue 24 , 28 December 2018 , pp. 4241 - 4250
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2018 

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Footnotes

b)

These authors contributed equally to this work.

References

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