M. Wiesing

An efficient PE-ALD process for TiO2 thin films employing a new Ti-precursor

An efficient plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition (PE-ALD) process was developed for TiO2 thin films of high quality, using a new Ti-precursor, namely tris(dimethylamido)-(dimethylamino-2-propanolato)titanium(IV) (TDMADT). The five-coordinated titanium complex is volatile, thermally stable and reactive, making it a potential precursor for ALD and PE-ALD processes. Process optimization was performed with respect to plasma pulse length and reactive gas flow rate. Besides an ALD window, the application of the new compound was investigated using in situ quartz-crystal microbalance (QCM) to monitor surface saturation and growth per cycle (GPC). The new PE-ALD process is demonstrated to be an efficient procedure to deposit stoichiometric titanium dioxide thin films under optimized process conditions with deposition temperatures as low as 60 °C. Thin films deposited on Si(100) and polyethylene-terephthalate (PET) exhibit a low RMS roughness of about 0.22 nm. In addition, proof-of-principle studies on TiO2 thin films deposited on PET show promising results in terms of barrier performance with oxygen transmission rates (OTR) found to be as low as 0.12 cm3 × cm−2 × day−1 for 14 nm thin films.

Lifshitz analysis of dispersion forces based on quantitative reflection electron energy loss spectroscopy

HYPOTHESIS The energy loss experienced by an electron while moving through a solid is determined by the optical properties of the surrounding. Hence, quantitative Reflection Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy (REELS) should allow the determination of optical data required for the calculation of Hamaker coefficients using Lifshitz theory. This approach might improve the accuracy of calculated Hamaker coefficients and should also enable to harness the unique capabilities of REELS to analyse nanostructured surfaces and thin-films with great spatial resolution and surface sensitivity. EXPERIMENTS REELS spectra of a survey of insulating polymers and of metal-like Ti0.23Al0.32N0.44 (TiAlN) were measured, the complex dielectric functions determined and the corresponding Hamaker coefficients across vacuum and water calculated. The sensitivity of the quantification procedure towards typical systematic errors was investigated. For polystyrene the results were comparatively analysed using vacuum ultraviolet spectroscopy (VUV). FINDINGS The accuracy especially of the non-retarded vacuum Hamaker constants of the polymers was increased when compared to VUV reflectance spectroscopy due to the higher spectral range of REELS. Furthermore, a new correction procedure for the intricate case of unresolved inelastic losses in the REELS spectrum, such as encountered in the case of TiAlN, could be developed using spectroscopic ellipsometry as a complementary mean.