A high growth rate process of ALD CeOx with amidinato-cerium [(N-iPr-AMD)3Ce] and O3 as precursors

Abstract

In this paper, a novel approach was studied to fabricate ALD CeOx films with amidinato-cerium (N-iPr-AMD)3Ce and O3 as precursors. Ideal self-limiting deposition behaviors were found for the prepared films. The purity and surface morphology of the as-grown CeOx films, which possessed a high and constant growth rate of ~ 2.8 A/cycle at 220–255 °C, were confirmed by XPS, XRD, SEM and AFM. The CeOx films could uniformly and conformally be deposited into deep and narrow trenches (high aspect ratio of 10:1), suggesting the good potential of this ALD process for complex 3D nanostructure-based applications. Furthermore, first-principles calculations based on density functional theory were performed to investigate possible interfacial reactions of this ALD process on the SiO2 surface.