Production of Strontium Sulfide Coatings by Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition

Abstract

AbstractThis work was focused on the MOCVD of the cerium-doped strontium sulfide (SrS:Ce) phosphor for use in thin film electroluminescent displays (TFELs). Following previous research on a small scale reactor, a feasibility scale-up using a commercially available reactor enlarged the size of the deposition area to a 4” diameter wafer or a 2” by 2” glass slide. Films were deposited from the reaction of Sr(thd)2, Ce(thd)4, and H2S at 450 °C and 5 torr. This system employed a liquid delivery system for the accurate and repeatable delivery of the metal organic reagents. The deposition from this reactor was shown to be crystalline-as-deposited SrS with a (200) orientation, possibly a result of the thin nature of the coating and the involvement of (200) grains in the initial nucleation process. The wafers showed good uniformity, but had some thickness variation near the outer radius of the wafer resulting from the addition of H2S from the outside edge. There were eighteen total deposition experiments, of which nine were characterized for EL performance. The highest brightness observed was 5 fL. The samples were exceedingly thin as a result of the fifteen fold increase in the surface area between the deposition reactors. Increasing the sample thickness to 7,000 Å or higher will dramatically increase the brightness of the emission.