Plasma Enhanced Atomic Layer Deposition on Powders

ABSTRACTThe template-based approach has been employed for the synthesis of nanomaterials with the potential application in the development of new material, energy and microelectronic devices. The templates are carbon nanotubes, to which the external contour is applied. Both plasmaenhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) and atomic layer deposition (ALD) processes have been studied for various materials, including SiO2 and Al2O3. It is found that PECVD processes can give conformal coating on the template of carbon nanotubes, and the plasmaenhanced ALD (PEALD) processes do not show obvious damage to the morphology of carbon nanotubes. Pretreatment is also not necessary for the formation of conformal coatings of SiO2 and Al2O3. Moreover, the carbon nanotubes can be treated as the sacrificial template and removed to prepare the nanostructures with original contour. As an example, the 3-dimensional structure of Al2O3 has been demonstrated. This can be explored to develop 2D and 3D nanostructures of the intended materials. The approach of using PECVD and ALD processes makes it possible to integrate in a continuous way such kind of synthesis process with production processes of current semiconductor and energy industries.

We have employed plasma-enhanced and thermal atomic layer deposition (ALD) within the temperature range of 50–150°C for the deposition of ultra-thin (10–50 nm) Al2O3 films on 100Cr6 steel and aluminium Al2024-T3 alloys. [Al(CH3)3] was used as the precursor with either an O2 plasma or water as co-reactants. Neutral salt spray tests showed that the thicker films offered the best corrosion-resistance. Using cyclic voltametry, the 50 nm films were found to be the least porous (<0.5%). For 10 nm thick films, plasma-enhanced ALD afforded a lower porosity and higher film density than thermal ALD. ToF-SIMS measurements on 100Cr6 showed that the main ‘bulk’ of the films contained very few impurities, but OH and C were observed at the interfaces. TEM confirmed that the films were conformal on all substrates and the adhesion was excellent for the films deposited by plasma-enhanced ALD but not for thermal ALD, as delamination was observed. On the basis of these and other results, the prospects of the application of ALD films for corrosion protection, and the use of plasma-enhanced ALD to promote their nucleation, is discussed.

Since the successful introduction in the Western economic area of Atomic Layer Epitaxy (ALE) by Suntola's team [1] the technique more extensively known as Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) has been slowly gaining acceptance in the field of thin film deposition [2]. There are many benefits of ALD, however, in terms of deposition rates and management of reactive gas species in complex 3D structures (such as Through Silicon Vias) there is still a long road ahead. In addition, typical ALD coatings require high temperature on substrates in order to promote surface chemical reaction between surface and incoming gas species. Sometimes a substrate temperature cycling is also required. These factors in turn produce stress on the deposited films. Some of the interesting 3D features of semiconductor devices could be very sensitive to processing conditions such as those involving ALD thermal cycles, for that reason Plasma Enhanced ALD (PEALD) techniques are of interest. PEALD has been introduced in order to lower the temperature requirements for the ALD process and also in order to control the properties of the ALD deposited film. The industrialization of such process presents a number of challenges. In PEALD, it is of interest to control the nature and degree of interaction of such plasmas with the surface chemistry. In novel wafer level electronic packaging technologies using TSVs that require high aspect ratio penetration plasmas could find difficult to penetrate so that effective chemical reaction is achieved. Standard deposition techniques show normally bad step coverage. A possible solution would be the use of medium energy ion beams in order to promote the chemical reactivity of the layering at deep trenches for example. For that reason, plasma sources which can control the energy of the ion beam are of special interest. One of those sources are the so called Anode Layer Ion Sources (ALIS), which can be extended in such a way that could cover very large areas. The results of the investigation and use of ALIS in PEALD depositions on silicon trenches will be presented.

We report on an alternative, atomic layer deposited (ALD) TaN barrier scheme for Cu interconnects for 14nm technology node and beyond, i.e., 64nm pitch and/or smaller interconnects. With VLSI integration requiring denser packing of interconnects, conformal fill of progressively narrower trenches and vias with high aspect ratio, presents tough challenge for line-of-sight physical vapor deposition processes. ALD overcomes these gap-fill challenges but has disadvantages of low throughput, chemical residues and relatively lower density of ALD barriers for effective blocking of O2and Cu diffusion. From gap-fill perspective, ALD films enable ultrathin, conformal barrier with reduced problems of overhang and large bottom thickness, typical of physical vapor deposited (PVD) films. Reduced bottom-thickness enables via-contact resistance reduction and less overhang improves gap-fill, while maximizing Cu volume in a trench/via structure. Our blanket film studies show that ALD films are 10-15% less dense compared to Ta-rich PVD films, and more importantly only desired low-resistance alpha-Ta nucleates on ALD films vs. thin PVD films. The conformality of ALD TaN as well as the nucleation of alpha-Ta on it form the basis of via contact resistance reduction, leading to performance enhancement.A plasma-enhanced ALD (PEALD) process helps increase density and improves the hermeticity of the barrier. But PEALD can cause dielectric damage and lead to TDDB failures especially in smaller technology nodes. To maximize density while protecting low-k dielectric during deposition and maintaining low-contact resistance, we explored different flavors and combinations of thermal (tALD) and plasma-enhanced ALD (PEALD). In this work, we use a new, commercially available 40 MHz direct-plasma ALD tool and corresponding optimized processes to maximize throughput and minimize dielectric damage. Different ALD flavors, viz., tALD+post plasma(PP) treatment, tALD/PEALD bilayer films were evaluated for 14 nm technology groundrule interconnects in k=2.7 and k=2.55 dielectric levels. We were able to achieve via contact resistance reduction of 25-35%, with equivalent or better performance for yield, defectivity and electromigration (EM), time-dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB) and stress migration (SM) reliability. In-line measured defect density for dual-damascene interconnects in k=2.55 dielectric was studied with a conservative ALD TaN thickness process window; the splits with 15-20A of tALDPP TaN barrier layers were found to have the lowest defectivity. Similar data for various ALD splits vs. PVD showed that the same tALDPP process with a certain thickness combination of the bilayer TaN/ Ta resulted in least defect density. This same optimized condition looked best for viachain yield for a macro with ~108via links at 14nm groundrule. We also confirmed that the same condition resulted in the lowest via contact resistance for fully landed vias for 45 chiplets across 3 wafers; where via bottom size variation was <10%. Another study with several bilayer ALD splits in k=2.55 dielectric, showed that the 5tALD/5PEALD condition with initial tALD layer protecting the low-k dielectric followed by denser PEALD to get a more effective barrier, yielded better than PVD TaN. The lowest via resistance data was also recorded for the same split. The EM stress results for both via and line-depletion at each of k=2.7 and k=2.55 levels were also studied. ALD splits were slightly worse than PVD condition with the exception of one stress direction, but still pass reliability targets scaled from the 22 nm technology node. The kinetics data for via depletion tests results in activation energy in excess of 1 eV. TDDB stress results were obtained for builds in both k=2.7 and k=2.55 dielectrics. The most significant impact of ALD on TDDB was the restoration of voltage acceleration parameter (gamma) for both levels. Gammas (slopes of lines) for ALD of all three devices were clearly higher. This confirmed that our optimized ALD condition does no damage to the dielectric. Lastly, impact of different liner processes on stress migration (SM) was investigated at 225oC stress for 1000 hours. There were no stress fails on any of the liner splits from the traditional plate and nose type SM structures. In summary, ALD TaN is shown to be a robust alternative barrier for Cu interconnect technology for technologies nodes like 14nm and smaller. The process can be optimized to give ~30% reduction in via contact reduction while preserving healthy yield, defect density and EM, TDDB and SM reliability.

Introduction The reduction of the leakage current density and development of a high dielectric constant (k) greater than 60 as insulator have emerged as the main challenge in dynamic random access memory (DRAM) fabrication. RuO2 is a promising material for the electrodes because of its higher work function (5.4eV) compared as currently used TiN (4.7 eV) [1, 2]. Ru or RuO2 formation strongly depends on fabrication condition. The incubation time and surface roughness of RuO2 film, deposited by atomic layer deposition (ALD) process, were also related to the substrate material. On the other hand, ZrO2/Al2O3/ZrO2 structure was currently employed as insulator because an amorphous Al2O3 layer can suppress to a leakage current path along the crystal grain boundaries of ZrO2 layer. Rutile TiO2 has been studied most intensively because of its remarkably high k of ~80. Furthermore, the crystal structure of RuO2 resembles that of rutile TiO2 [3]. However, TiO2 has a disadvantage of low band gap compared to ZrO2. To overcome this issue, we pay attention to Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitor with RuO2 electrode and TiO2/Al2O3/TiO2 (TAT) insulator. The difference (1.53 eV) between conduction band offset of TiO2 and work function of RuO2 is about two times as large as that (0.83 eV) of TiO2 and TiN. In this paper, we investigated surface roughness of RuO2 film on several buffer layers, such as covalent SiO2, ionic Al2O3 and TiO2, by plasma-enhanced ALD (PE-ALD). We also examine the PE-ALD RuO2 film as a bottom electrode for MIM capacitors with TAT insulator. Experimental MIM capacitors with TAT insulator consisted of a PE-ALD-RuO2 bottom electrode (BE-RuO2), a first TiO2 layer, an Al2O3 layer, a second TiO2 layer, and Sp-RuO2 top electrodes (TE-RuO2), in that order. Si substrates with thermal SiO2, ALD-Al2O3, and ALD-TiO2 buffer layers were first prepared, and then BE-RuO2 deposited on the buffer layers by PE-ALD at 300°C using Ru(C2H5C5H4)2 as a precursor and plasma oxygen gas. A first TiO2 layer (10 nm) was deposited on BE-RuO2 by ALD and the first post-deposition anneal (PDA) was carried out at 600°C. Next, Al2O3 (0.5 ~ 5 nm) layer was deposited by ALD, and the second TiO2 (10 nm) layer was then deposited under the same ALD condition as the first TiO2 layer. The second PDA was performed at 600°C. Finally, the Top-RuO2 was deposited by reactive sputtering. Results and Discussion Figure 1 shows k value of TAT as a function of Al2O3 thickness of TAT for RuO2/TAT/RuO2 capacitors. The C-V characteristics of the capacitors were measured by sweeping the voltage from -1 V to 1 V at 100 kHz. The k value of TAT was estimated from the C-V data at 0V. The k value shows a reasonable degradation behavior as Al2O3 thickness increases from 1 to 5 nm in all capacitors. No significant difference appears among SiO2, Al2O3, and TiO2 buffer layers. Furthermore, the k values exhibited 41 ~ 47 for TAT with 1-nm-thick Al2O3. Next, we examine influence of surface roughness of a bottom electrode on leakage current property. TiN/TAT/TiN capacitors was prepared as a reference. The TiN electrode was deposited by sputtering (Sp-TiN). Figure 2 shows comparison of conductive-AFM data for PE-ALD-RuO2/TAT and Sp-TiN/TAT on Al2O3 buffer layer. The measured root mean square (RMS) roughness values for PE-ALD-RuO2 and RuO2/TAT were 0.9 and 1.1 nm, respectively. On the other hand, Sp-TiN and TiN/TAT both had a large surface roughness, with RMS values of 2.0 and 2.6 nm, respectively. Two leak spots were clearly observed on the TiN/TAT, while no spot on the RuO2/TAT under applied voltage of 8 V. This must be related to the difference of surface roughness between the RuO2 and TiN bottom electrodes. Conclusions The smooth surface roughness of PE-ALD-RuO2 film was obtained on ionic Al2O3 buffer layer. The RuO2/TAT/RuO2 capacitors exhibited relatively high k values of over 40. The leakage current property of capacitor is related to the surface roughness of a bottom electrode. Thus, the RuO2 bottom electrode deposited on the ionic Al2O3 buffer layer has the significant advantage for future DRAM Acknowledgements A part of this work was performed under the Cooperative Research Program of Institute for Joining and Welding Research Institute, Osaka University. Part of this research is supported by CREST, JST. The authors thank all staff members of the Nanofabrication Group in NIMS, for their support.

Titanium oxide (TiO2) deposited by atomic layer deposition (ALD) is used as a protective layer in photocatalytic water splitting system as well as a dielectric in resistive memory switching. The way ALD is performed (thermally or plasma-assisted) may change the growth rate as well as the electronic properties of the deposited films. In the present work, the authors verify the influence of the ALD mode on functional parameters, by comparing the growth rate and electronic properties of TiO2 films deposited by thermal (T-) and plasma-enhanced (PE-) ALD. The authors complete the study with the electrical characterization of selected samples by means of capacitance–voltage and current–voltage measurements. In all samples, the authors found a significant presence of Ti3+ states, with the lowest content in the PE-ALD grown TiO2 films. The observation of Ti3+ states was accompanied by the presence of in-gap states above the valence band maximum. For films thinner than 10 nm, the authors found also a strong leakage current. Also in this case, the PE-ALD films showed the weakest leakage currents, showing a correlation between the presence of Ti3+ states and leakage current density.

Recently, the demand for moisture barrier has been increasing as the encapsulation layers of organic electronic devices, such as organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display, organic solar cells, and organic thin-film transistors. Dielectric thin films prepared by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD), hot-wire CVD, and atomic layer deposition (ALD) at low temperatures lower than 150°C have been investigated as the moisture barrier. Among them, the multilayered thin structure composed of aluminum oxide or silicon nitride prepared by ALD showed the best results [1,2]. In the present work, we prepared silicon nitride thin films by plasma-enhanced ALD (PEALD) at 100°C using novel silicon precursors, 1,3-di-iso-propylamino-4,4-dimethylcyclodisilazane (CSN-2) and bis-(di-methylamino-dimethylsilyl)- trimethylsilyl amine (DTDN-2H2), and investigated the properties of the deposited films, such as growth rate per cycle, composition, density, wet etch rate, and water vapor permeability. The effects of deposition temperature and plasma condition on the barrier properties were also discussed. [1] F. Nehm, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 7 (2015) 22121. [2] A.-M. Andringa, et al., ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 7 (2015) 22525. Fig.1. The FTIR spectrum of silicon nitride thin films prepared by PEALD at 100°C using CSN-2 as the silicon precursor. Figure 1

Self‐limiting growth of Al2O3 is accomplished using both pulsed plasma‐enhanced (PE) CVD and plasma‐enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD). In pulsed PECVD the two reactants (Al(CH3)3/TMA and O2) are supplied continuously, while in PEALD the TMA is delivered in pulses separated by purge steps. For both processes the rate per cycle saturates with ∼200 L of TMA exposure. At 165 °C a rate of 1.37 Å per cycle is obtained using PEALD. For pulsed PECVD the rate scales linearly with the TMA partial pressure, and its extrapolation is in good agreement with PEALD. The results suggest that deposition in pulsed PECVD involves an ALD component which is supplemented by PECVD growth, and that the contribution of the latter may be tuned using the TMA partial pressure. Experiments using patterned wafers support this hypothesis. Conformal coatings are observed within 10:1 aspect ratio trenches using pulsed PECVD; however the deposition rate on the surface of these substrates is greater than within the trench. The ratio between the two corresponds well to the ratio of rates obtained from pulsed PECVD and PEALD on planar substrates. With cycle times &lt;1 s, net rates up to 20 nm min−1 are obtained by pulsed PECVD while retaining high quality and digital control.

One of the most challenging problems in the development of lithium–sulfur batteries is polysulfide dissolution, which leads to cell overcharge and low columbic efficiency. Here, we propose the formation of a thin conformal Li‐ion permeable oxide layer on the sulfur‐carbon composite electrode surface by rapid plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD) in order to prevent this dissolution, while preserving electrical connectivity within the individual electrode particles. PEALD synthesis offers a fast deposition rate combined with a low operating temperature, which allows sulfur evaporation during deposition to be avoided. After PEALD of a thin layer of aluminium oxide on the surface of electrode composed of large (ca. 10 μm in diameter) S‐infiltrated activated carbon fibers (S‐ACF), significantly enhanced cycle life is observed, with a capacity in excess of 600 mA·h·g−1 after 300 charge–discharge cycles. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) shows a significant amount of redeposited lithium sulfides on the external surface of regular S‐ACF electrodes. However, the PEALD alumina‐coated electrodes show no lithium sulfide deposits on the fiber surface. Energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) studies of the electrodes’ chemical composition further confirms that PEALD alumina coatings dramatically reduce S dissolution from the cathodes by confining the polysulfides inside the alumina barrier.

Recent experimental research efforts on developing functional nanostructured III-nitride and metal-oxide materials via low-temperature atomic layer deposition (ALD) will be reviewed. Ultimate conformality, a unique propoerty of ALD process, is utilized to fabricate core-shell and hollow tubular nanostructures on various nano-templates including electrospun nanofibrous polymers, self-assembled peptide nanofibers, metallic nanowires, and multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). III-nitride and metal-oxide coatings were deposited on these nano-templates via thermal and plasma-enhanced ALD processes with thickness values ranging from a few mono-layers to 40 nm. Metal-oxide materials studied include ZnO, TiO2, HfO2, ZrO2, and Al2O3. Standard ALD growth recipes were modified so that precursor molecules have enough time to diffuse and penetrate within the layers/pores of the nano-template material. As a result, uniform and conformal coatings on high-surface area nano-templates were demonstrated. Substrate temperatures were kept below 200C and within the self-limiting ALD window, so that temperature-sensitive template materials preserved their integrity III-nitride coatings were applied to similar nano-templates via plasma-enhanced ALD (PEALD) technique. AlN, GaN, and InN thin-film coating recipes were optimized to achieve self-limiting growth with deposition temperatures as low as 100C. BN growth took place only for >350C, in which precursor decomposition occured and therefore growth proceeded in CVD regime. III-nitride core-shell and hollow tubular single and multi-layered nanostructures were fabricated. The resulting metal-oxide and III-nitride core-shell and hollow nano-tubular structures were used for photocatalysis, dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC), energy storage and chemical sensing applications. Significantly enhanced catalysis, solar efficiency, charge capacity and sensitivity performance are reported. Moreover, core-shell metal-oxide and III-nitride materials showed promise to be used in applications where flexibility is critical like functional membranes, textile and flexible electronic applications.

Vanadium pentoxide was deposited by atomic layer deposition (ALD) from vanadyl-tri-isopropoxide (VTIP). Water or oxygen was used as a reactive gas in thermal and plasma-enhanced (PE) processes. For PE ALD, there was a wide ALD temperature window from 50 to . Above , VTIP decomposed thermally, resulting in the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of vanadium pentoxide. The PE ALD reactions saturated much faster than during thermal ALD, leading to a growth rate of approximately 0.7 Å/cycle during PE ALD using or . Optical emission spectroscopy showed combustion-like reactions during the plasma step. X-ray diffraction was performed to determine the crystallinity of the films after deposition and after postannealing under He or atmosphere. Films grown with CVD at and PE ALD at were (001)-oriented as deposited, while thermal and PE ALD films grown at were amorphous as deposited. The crystallinity of the PE ALD could be correlated to its high purity, while the other films had significant carbon contamination, as shown by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Annealing under He led to oxygen-deficient films, while all samples eventually crystallized into under .

Titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) is a widely used material for photocatalytic, optical, electrical and medical applications. Atomic layer deposition (ALD) represents an excellent technique for the synthesis of thin films due to its precise thickness control, simplicity, high conformity of obtained films and reproducible growth of defect‐free films. It was shown recently that photo‐catalytic TiO 2 films grown on cellulose‐based and porous substrates can be used in water purification systems [1]. Its photo‐catalytic activity strongly depends on the crystal structure and the grain size of the film, i.e. the TiO 2 films must have a well‐defined anatase phase with large polycrystalline grains [2]. It was recognized that plasma enhanced ALD (PEALD) growth of the TiO 2 film can produce the anatase phase even at low deposition temperatures [3]. This result is important for the growth of thin polycrystalline films on temperature‐sensitive materials, such as organic substrates. On the other hand, the grain size is shown to depend critically on the type and the morphology of substrates [4]. We have investigated the effects of thin intermediate layers, grown by ALD on silicon substrates, on the grain size of the TiO 2 films, grown by thermal ALD and PEALD technique in a wide temperature range, from room temperature up to 300°C. Amorphous TiO 2 films were obtained with thermal ALD for temperatures below 150°C, while the anatase phase with crystalline aggregates has been identified on films synthesised with PEALD at low temperatures. We show that the size of crystallites can be greatly enlarged if grown on an intermediate layer of amorphous Al 2 O 3 . The films were characterised by a range of analytical techniques, including scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive x‐ray spectroscopy, secondary ion mass spectrometry, x‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy and x‐ray diffraction.

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) has recently received increasing attention for the growth of high-conformity silicon nitride (SiN) thin films. In particular, plasma enhanced ALD (PEALD) allows SiN deposition at substantially lower temperatures (< 400 °C) with better film properties, compared to thermal ALD. These advantages make PEALD more attractive for ultra large scale integrated circuit (ULSI) device fabrication where the growth of aspect ratio independent and high-quality conformal thin dielectric films is tremendously important. The PEALD of SiN films involves a repetitive two-step process: (1) adsorption and decomposition of silicon-containing precursors and ii) nitridation of the Si-rich surface by active N species emanating from the plasma. Halogenated silanes such as hexachlorodisilane, bis(tertiary-butyl-amino)- silane, and dicholorosilane (DCS, SiH2Cl2) have been utilized as Si precursors. Despite previous studies, the underlying reaction mechanisms of these Si precursors with a N-rich SiN surface during PEALD still remain uncertain. Parameters controlling the rate of growth and uniformity have been demonstrated experimentally, but without knowledge of the reaction mechanisms, direct contributions of specific process conditions cannot be explained. Using first-principles density functional theory (DFT) calculations combined with experimental characterization, we have examined and identified a novel mechanism for the adsorption and decomposition of DCS on a N-rich SiN surface. Our study predicts that the DCS adsorption and dissociation can occur by overcoming a moderate barrier (~ 0.3 eV), far lower than the prohibitively large barriers predicted for previously proposed mechanisms. Through a detailed electronic structure analysis of the reaction intermediates, we have also elucidated the principles underlying the reaction mechanism, notably the hypervalent nature of Si which permits the facile reaction of molecularly adsorbed DCS with primary and secondary amines on the surface, followed by simultaneous Cl release and deportation steps and subsequent HCl formation and desorption. We have examined the same mechanism utilizing alternative precursors and the predicted trends are found to be corroborated with the important properties of the system. Understanding these principles allows us to develop guidelines for processing conditions, such as the importance of maintaining the proper surface composition to facilitate Si precursor adsorption and dissociation. Our study provides insight into the SiN ALD process via chlorosilanes and guidelines to control the deposition for high-quality SiN films and provides a framework for future theoretical studies of surface reactions during ALD.

We propose a deposition method capable of independently controlling the spatial density and average size of Ru nanocrystals by using both plasma-enhanced and thermal atomic layer deposition (ALD). Plasma-enhanced ALD is used to promote the nucleation of Ru nanocrystals, while thermal ALD is used to assist their growth. By the rigorous selection of each stage, we can demonstrate the formation of Ru nanocrystals with a density variation from 3.5 X 10 11 to 8.4 X 10 11 cm -2 and sizes from 2.2 to 5.1 nm, which is in the optimum density and size range of nanocrystal floating-gate memory application.

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is a key technique in processing new materials compatible with complex architectures. While the processing space for Li-containing ALD thin films has been relatively well explored recently, the space for other alkali metal thin films (e.g., Na) is more limited. Thermal ALD and plasma-enhanced ALD (PEALD) lithium phosphorus oxynitride [Kozen et al., Chem. Mater. 27, 5324 (2015); Pearse et al., Chem. Mater. 29, 3740 (2017)] processes as well as analogous thermal sodium phosphorus oxynitride (NaPON) (Ref. 13) have been previously developed as conformal ALD solid state electrolytes. The main difference between the Na and Li processes is the alkali tert-butoxide precursor (AOtBu, A = Li, Na). One would expect such an isoelectronic substitution with precursors that have similar structure and properties to correlate with a similarly behaved ALD process. However, this work demonstrates that the PEALD NaPON process unexpectedly behaves quite differently from its Li counterpart, introducing some insight into the development of Na-containing thin films. In this work, we demonstrate process development and characterization of an analogous low temperature (250 °C) PEALD of NaPON. This process demonstrates significant tunability of N coordination states by varying plasma nitrogen exposure time. Electrochemical characterization showed an ionic conductivity of 8.2 × 10−9 S/cm at 80 °C and activation energy of 1.03 eV. This first instance of low temperature NaPON deposition by PEALD shows promise for further development and understanding of more versatile processing of Na thin film materials.