ZnO/Al2O3 nanolaminates fabricated by atomic layer deposition: growth and surface roughness measurements

The post-annealing effects on the surface morphological changes of undoped and Al-doped ZnO (ZnO:Al) thin films deposited by atomic layer deposition (ALD) were investigated. The as-grown films were deposited by ALD at growth temperature of 200°C and also, post-annealing of the samples was accomplished at 300°C for 1 h under nitrogen atmosphere. The X-ray diffraction of the films was monitored to study the crystallinity of the films according to post-anneal. The field emission-scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy were conducted to observe the surface morphological changes and measure the root-mean-square roughness of the films in order to analysis the post-annealing effects on the surface roughness of the films.

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Nucleation period, surface roughness, and oscillations in mass gain per cycle during W atomic layer deposition on Al2O3

Journal of Applied Physics ◽

10.1063/1.3103254 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 105 (7) ◽

pp. 074309 ◽

Cited By ~ 39

Author(s):

R. W. Wind ◽

F. H. Fabreguette ◽

Z. A. Sechrist ◽

S. M. George

Keyword(s):

Surface Roughness ◽

Atomic Layer Deposition ◽

Atomic Layer ◽

Mass Gain ◽

Layer Deposition

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Microstructural evolution of ZrO2–HfO2 nanolaminate structures grown by atomic layer deposition

Journal of Materials Research ◽

10.1557/jmr.2004.19.2.643 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 19 (2) ◽

pp. 643-650 ◽

Cited By ~ 30

Author(s):

Hyoungsub Kim ◽

Paul C. McIntyre ◽

Krishna C. Saraswat

Keyword(s):

Surface Roughness ◽

Atomic Layer Deposition ◽

Microstructural Evolution ◽

Single Layer ◽

Atomic Layer ◽

Individual Layer ◽

Force Microscopy ◽

Layer Sequence ◽

Transmission Electron ◽

Layer Deposition

Zirconia–hafnia (ZrO2–HfO2) nanolaminate structures were grown using the atomic layer deposition (ALD) technique with different stacking sequences and layer thickness layer thicknesses. The microstructural evolution and surface roughness were compared with those of single-layer ZrO2 or HfO2 films using transmission electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy. Thin single-layer ALD-ZrO2 films were polycrystalline and composed of the tetragonal ZrO2 phase as-deposited, whereas thicker (>14 nm) films were composed mainly of the monoclinic phase. HfO2 films were amorphous as-deposited and crystallized into primarily monoclinic during subsequent anneals at temperatures over 500 °C. All the nanolaminate structures having individual layer thicknesses greater than approximately 2 nm were crystalline (mixture of tetragonal and monoclinic phases) independent of layer sequence and also exhibited a layer-to-layer epitaxy relationship within each grain. However, the identity of the starting layer determined the final grain size and surface roughness of the nanolaminates. A qualitative model for the observed microstructure evolution of the laminate films is proposed.

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Smoothing Surface Roughness Using Al2O3 Atomic Layer Deposition

Applied Surface Science ◽

10.1016/j.apsusc.2021.150878 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 150878

Author(s):

Tyler J. Myers ◽

James A. Throckmorton ◽

Rebecca A. Borrelli ◽

Malcolm O'Sullivan ◽

Tukaram Hatwar ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Surface Roughness ◽

Atomic Layer Deposition ◽

Atomic Layer ◽

Layer Deposition

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Reducing Adhesion Force by Means of Atomic Layer Deposition of ZnO Films with Nanoscale Surface Roughness

ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces ◽

10.1021/am4053333 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 6 (5) ◽

pp. 3325-3330 ◽

Cited By ~ 29

Author(s):

Zhimin Chai ◽

Yuhong Liu ◽

Xinchun Lu ◽

Dannong He

Keyword(s):

Surface Roughness ◽

Atomic Layer Deposition ◽

Adhesion Force ◽

Atomic Layer ◽

Zno Films ◽

Layer Deposition

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Исследование влияния обработки поверхности Si-подложек на морфологию слоев GaP, полученных методом плазмохимического атомно-слоевого осаждения

Физика и техника полупроводников ◽

10.21883/ftp.2022.02.51964.9748 ◽

2022 ◽

Vol 56 (2) ◽

pp. 213

Author(s):

А.В. Уваров ◽

В.А. Шаров ◽

Д.А. Кудряшов ◽

А.С. Гудовских

Keyword(s):

Surface Roughness ◽

Atomic Layer Deposition ◽

Surface Treatment ◽

Hydrogen Plasma ◽

Argon Plasma ◽

Atomic Layer ◽

Root Mean Square Roughness ◽

Si Substrates ◽

Layer Deposition ◽

Dimensional Growth

Investigations of atomic-layer deposition of GaP layers on Si substrates with different orientations and with different preliminary surface treatment have been carried out. The deposition of GaP was carried out by the method of plasma enhanced atomic-layer deposition using in situ treatment in argon plasma. It was shown that at the initial stage of the growth of GaP layers on precisely oriented (100) Si substrates and with misorientation, two-dimensional growth occurs both after chemical and plasma surface treatment. Upon growth on (111) substrates, after plasma treatment of the surface, a transition to three-dimensional growth is observed, at which the size of islands reaches 30–40 nm. The smallest root-mean-square roughness of the surface of the growing GaP layers (<0.1 nm) was achieved for (100) substrates with a misorientation of 4 °. The GaP layers grown on (100) substrates had a roughness of ~ 0.1 nm, and on substrates with the (111) orientation - 0.12 nm. It was found that the surface treatment of Si substrates with the (100) orientation in hydrogen plasma leads to a slight increase in the surface roughness of growing GaP layers (0.12–0.14 nm), which is associated with the effect of inhomogeneous etching of silicon in hydrogen plasma. When treating the (100) silicon surface in argon plasma, the surface roughness does not change significantly in comparison with the chemical surface treatment. On the surface of substrates with preliminary deposition of an epitaxial Si layer with a thickness of 4 nm, the morphology of GaP layers is the same as in the case of using hydrogen plasma.

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Low-temperature plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition growth of WNxCy from a novel precursor for barrier applications in nanoscale devices

Journal of Materials Research ◽

10.1557/jmr.2007.0079 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 22 (3) ◽

pp. 703-709 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Wanxue Zeng ◽

Xiaodong Wang ◽

Sumit Kumar ◽

David W. Peters ◽

Eric T. Eisenbraun

Keyword(s):

Surface Roughness ◽

Low Temperature ◽

Atomic Layer Deposition ◽

Atomic Layer ◽

Low Temperature Plasma ◽

Performance Measurements ◽

Temperature Plasma ◽

Excellent Thermal Stability ◽

Copper Diffusion ◽

Layer Deposition

A low-temperature plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD) process has been developed for the growth of ultrathin WNxCy films, using a halide-free W precursor. A 32-nm-thick PEALD WNxCy film deposited using this process at 250 °C possesses a composition of W72C20N5, resistivity of ∼250 μΩ·cm, a root-mean-square (rms) surface roughness of 0.23 nm, and a thickness conformality of more than 80% on trench structures with a width of 120 nm and an aspect ratio of 11. The WNxCy films exhibited excellent thermal stability, whereby resistivity, thickness, surface roughness, and crystal structure were stable after 30 min anneals in 700 Torr, forming gas ambient at temperatures up to 700 °C. Copper diffusion barrier performance measurements show that a 9 nm thick WNxCy film could prevent copper diffusion after a 30 min anneal at 700 °C, while a 2-nm-thick film could prevent copper diffusion after a 30 min anneal at 500 °C.

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Plasma Enhanced Atomic Layer Deposition of Ruthenium Films Using Ru(EtCp)2 Precursor

Coatings ◽

10.3390/coatings11020117 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (2) ◽

pp. 117

Author(s):

Alexander Rogozhin ◽

Andrey Miakonkikh ◽

Elizaveta Smirnova ◽

Andrey Lomov ◽

Sergey Simakin ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Surface Roughness ◽

Atomic Layer Deposition ◽

Substrate Temperature ◽

Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry ◽

Film Growth ◽

Atomic Layer ◽

Grazing Incidence ◽

Force Microscopy ◽

Si Substrates ◽

Layer Deposition

Ruthenium thin films were deposited by plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD) technology using Ru(EtCp)2 and oxygen plasma on the modified surface of silicon and SiO2/Si substrates. The crystal structure, chemical composition, and morphology of films were characterized by grazing incidence XRD (GXRD), secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS), and atomic force microscopy (AFM) techniques, respectively. It was found that the mechanism of film growth depends crucially on the substrate temperature. The GXRD and SIMS analysis show that at substrate temperature T = 375 °C, an abrupt change in surface reaction mechanisms occurs, leading to the changing in film composition from RuO2 at low temperatures to pure Ru film at higher temperatures. It was confirmed by electrical resistivity measurements for Ru-based films. Mechanical stress in the films was also analyzed, and it was suggested that this factor increases the surface roughness of growing Ru films. The lowest surface roughness ~1.5 nm was achieved with a film thickness of 29 nm using SiO2/Si-substrate for deposition at 375 °C. The measured resistivity of Ru film is 18–19 µOhm·cm (as deposited).

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