Pulsed Chemical Vapor Deposition Research Articles

Enhancing two-dimensional growth of high-temperature AlN buffer to improve the quality of GaN on Si grown by ex situ two-step method

GaN epitaxial films were grown on Si substrates by ex situ two-step method combining the technologies of pulsed laser deposition (PLD) and metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). The N/Al ratio of high-temperature AlN (HT-AlN) buffer layer was optimized, and its influence on the HT-AlN growth mode as well as the quality of GaN epitaxial films was investigated. When the N/Al ratio was 500, the two-dimensional growth of HT-AlN was greatly enhanced, and it obtained a coalesced and smooth surface with the minimum RMS surface roughness as 1.63 nm. The as-grown GaN epitaxial film had the best crystalline quality with the minimum full-width at half maximums of GaN(0002) and GaN(10 1¯ 2) as 0.14° and 0.22°, respectively. Owing to the high energy of PLD, the ex situ low-temperature AlN template had an abrupt Si/AlN interface and flat surface, which was of significance to improve the quality of HT-AlN buffer and GaN film.

Enhancing the quality of homoepitaxial (−201) β-Ga2O3 thin film by MOCVD with in situ pulsed indium

This article innovatively uses pulsed metal-organic chemical vapor deposition technology to optimize the quality of β-Ga2O3 thin films on (−201) β-Ga2O3 homo-substrate using indium pulse-assisted technology. The results demonstrate that the pulsed indium-assisted method, when compared with the traditional indium-assisted method, effectively suppresses the desorption of Ga2O, enhances the flatness of the β-Ga2O3 film, and reduces the surface roughness from 34.8 to 0.98 nm. The optimized single crystalline β-Ga2O3 film was grown with pulsed-indium, and the full width at half maximum of x-ray diffraction rocking curve was 30.42 arc sec, smaller than that of the continuous indium β-Ga2O3 (56.1 arc sec). In combination with the x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy O1s split-peak fitting analysis, the relative content of oxygen vacancies in the film was significantly reduced by pulsed indium-assisted method. The Hall mobility of films assisted by pulsed-indium is approximately 14 times higher than that of films assisted by traditional indium. The pulsed indium technology provides an idea for homoepitaxial growth of high-quality β-Ga2O3 films.

Atomic Layer Deposition of NiO Using Different Precursors with Different Oxygen Sources

NiO thin films have attracted tremendous attention owing to their outstanding chemical stability, good magnetic and catalytic properties1. It is also considered an efficient electrocatalyst for water oxidation, and is one of the few p-type semiconductive oxides with optical transparency due to its wide bandgap of 3.6 eV. Furthermore, NiO films can control high and low conductive states under an external electric field, which is very useful for developing resistance-switching random-access memory devices2.NiO films have been prepared by different deposition techniques, including sputtering, sol-gel, pulsed laser deposition, spray pyrolysis, and chemical vapor deposition (CVD), atomic layer deposition (ALD). Among these, ALD is a powerful technique to grow thin conformal films with fine-tuning of both composition and thickness. The commonly used nickel precursors for ALD process are Ni(Cp)2, Ni(MeCp)2, Ni(EtCp)2, Ni(dmamp)2, Ni(dmamb)2, Ni(acac)2, Ni(apo)2, Ni(dmg)2, Ni(thd)2, and Ni(amd)2 in combination with ozone, water, hydrogen peroxide, or oxygen plasma1. However, ALD of NiO is not well developed yet. The major disadvantages associated with these nickel precursors are low volatility, thermal instability, and poor reactivity or narrow ALD window. Some of these precursors are expensive or very difficult to synthesize. The aforementioned situations indicate that developing a new ALD process for the NiO film with new precursors is pertinent.In this work, we explored different Ni-precursors such as Ni ketoiminates, Ni(ipki)2 and Ni(eeki)2 (their synthesis has been proposed earlier3), and Alanis, provided by Air Liquide. These different reactants combined with different oxygen sources (H2O and O3) resulted in high-quality NiO thin films. Surface analyses indicate NiO films are stoichiometric. They are uniform and exhibit a columnar morphology as determined by TEM (Fig.1a). From the growth characteristics, it is found that the Ni precursors have a strong effect on the GPC. Similarly, the oxygen source affects GPC but it also influences the morphology of the layer leading to significant roughness variations (observed by XRR and AFM). The use of H2O can also result in a nucleation delay. Polycrystalline films are observed when the reaction temperature reaches 125°C, and the crystallinity is further enhanced with deposition temperature (Fig.1b). After comprehensive optimization of the ALD process with Alanis precursor, it has been possible to reach one of the highest growth rate of 1.5 Å/cy, which is nearly seven times higher than that obtained with Ni(EtCp)2 based reaction with the same ALD reactor and having a wide temperature window (100 to 175 °C) with ozone. The same precursor also reacted well with water, giving a GPC of 0.9 Å with an initial nucleation delay. With the use of Ni-ketoiminates, the growth rate could be enhanced considerably with a GPC of 0.7 Å in combination with O3 at a higher temperature.The NiO layers were subsequently used as catalysts for water photooxidation in alkaline medium. The electrochemical properties are better when compared to layers grown by PVD. References Y. Zhang, L. Du, X. Liu, and Y. Ding, A high growth rate atomic layer deposition process for nickel oxide film preparation using a combination of nickel (II) diketonate-diamine and ozone, App. Surf. Sci., 2019, 481, 138-143.H.L. Lu, G. Scarel, X.L. Li, M. Fanciulli, Thin MnO and NiO films grown using atomic layer deposition from ethylcyclopentadienyl type of precursors, J. Cryst. Growth, 2008, 310, 5464-5468.3. D. Zywitzki, D.H. Taffa, L. Lamkowski, M. Winter, D. Rogalla, M. Wark, and A. Devi, Tuning coordination geometry of nickel ketoiminates and its influence on thermal characteristics for chemical vapour deposition of nanostructured NiO electrocatalysts, Inorg. Chem., 2020,59, 14, 10059-10070. Figure 1

Van der Waals Epitaxy, Superlubricity, and Polarization of the 2D Ferroelectric SnS.

Tin monosulfide (SnS) is a two-dimensional layered semiconductor that exhibits in-plane ferroelectric order at very small thicknesses and is of interest in highly scaled devices. Here we report the epitaxial growth of SnS on hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) using a pulsed metal-organic chemical vapor deposition process. Lattice matching is observed between the SnS(100) and hBN{11̅0} planes, with no evidence of strain. Atomic force microscopy reveals superlubricity along the commensurate direction of the SnS/hBN interface, and first-principles calculations suggest that friction is controlled by the edges of the SnS islands, rather than interface interactions. Differential phase contrast imaging detects remnant polarization in SnS islands with domains that are not dictated by step-edges in the SnS. The growth of ferroelectric SnS on high quality hBN substrates is a promising step toward electrically switchable ferroelectric semiconducting devices.

Optimization quality for indium pulse-assisted of β-Ga2O3 thin film on sapphire surface

In the field of wide-bandgap semiconductors, fabricating high quality β-Ga2O3 films on heterogeneous substrates remains a tremendous challenge. This article innovatively uses pulsed metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) technology to optimize the quality of β-Ga2O3 thin film on sapphire substrates using indium pulse-assisted technology. The findings indicate that full width at half maximum of the (−201) β-Ga2O3 crystal plane orientation is reduced by 2700 arcsec after pulsed indium-assisted. The addition of pulsed indium atoms effectively suppresses the desorption of low oxide Ga2O, improving the flatness of β-Ga2O3 films surface and reduced the surface roughness from 30.1 nm to 5.4 nm. Moreover, the UV–Visible transmittance of the film exceeds 80%, accompanied by an increase in bandwidth. In combination with the XPS O1s split-peak fitting analysis, the quality of the films was optimized by using pulsed indium-assisted, resulting in a reduction in the relative content of oxygen vacancies in the film. The pulsed indium technology provides a new idea for heteroepitaxy growth of high quality β-Ga2O3 films.

Nanostructured Vanadium Dioxide Materials for Optical Sensing Applications.

Vanadium dioxide (VO2) is one of the strongly correlated materials exhibiting a reversible insulator-metal phase transition accompanied by a structural transition from a low-temperature monoclinic phase to high-temperature rutile phase near room temperature. Due to the dramatic change in electrical resistance and optical transmittance of VO2, it has attracted considerable attention towards the electronic and optical device applications, such as switching devices, memory devices, memristors, smart windows, sensors, actuators, etc. The present review provides an overview of several methods for the synthesis of nanostructured VO2, such as solution-based chemical approaches (sol-gel process and hydrothermal synthesis) and gas or vapor phase synthesis techniques (pulsed laser deposition, sputtering method, and chemical vapor deposition). This review also presents stoichiometry, strain, and doping engineering as modulation strategies of physical properties for nanostructured VO2. In particular, this review describes ultraviolet-visible-near infrared photodetectors, optical switches, and color modulators as optical sensing applications associated with nanostructured VO2 materials. Finally, current research trends and perspectives are also discussed.

Study of the effect of experimental conditions on atomic layer deposition of aluminum nitride films

AlN is an extremely chemically stable material that can withstand high temperature impacts and can be used as a coating against high temperature oxidation. In this paper, AlN films were grown on Si (111) substrates using pulsed chemical vapor deposition with a metal-organic source and ammonia as precursors followed by high-temperature in situ annealing and material physical characterization. The effects of temperature and plasma source on the AlN films were investigated, and it was concluded that the higher the temperature, the higher the growth rate of the AlN films and the lower the oxidation level. The plasma source pulsed mode showed higher growth rate and stronger aluminum signal, but its oxidation level was also higher. The plasma source normally open mode has a more desirable nitrogen signal.

Superconformal silicon carbide coatings via precursor pulsed chemical vapor deposition

In this work, silicon carbide (SiC) coatings were successfully grown by pulsed chemical vapor deposition (CVD). The precursors silicon tetrachloride (SiCl4) and ethylene (C2H4) were not supplied in a continuous flow but were pulsed alternately into the growth chamber with H2 as a carrier and a purge gas. A typical pulsed CVD cycle was SiCl4 pulse—H2 purge—C2H4 pulse—H2 purge. This led to growth of superconformal SiC coatings, which could not be obtained under similar process conditions using a constant flow CVD process. We propose a two-step framework for SiC growth via pulsed CVD. During the SiCl4 pulse, a layer of Si is deposited. In the following C2H4 pulse, this Si layer is carburized, and SiC is formed. The high chlorine surface coverage after the SiCl4 pulse is believed to enable superconformal growth via a growth inhibition effect.

Controllable Al2O3 coating makes TiO2 photocatalysts active under visible light by pulsed chemical vapor deposition

TiO2 catalysts, modified by coating Al2O3, presented high visible-light photocatalytic activity. Al2O3 nano-films were successfully deposited onto TiO2 particles using AlCl3 as a precursor via the pulsed chemical vapor deposition process. And, the alumina was anchored onto TiO2 surface via Ti–O–Al bonds. The morphology, constitution, photocatalytic activity and photoelectrochemical performance of the Al2O3-coated TiO2 were characterized. Controllable Al2O3 coating increased the oxygen vacancies and hydroxyl groups, and induced the formation of surface disordered TiO2 layer, which enhanced light absorption, increased charge carrier separation and transfer efficiency, and surface redox efficiency. Therefore, the TiO2/Al2O3 catalyst obtained via the pulsed chemical vapor deposition technique may break through the limitation of the band gap, and the pulsed chemical vapor deposition provided an effective strategy for the TiO2 production with active defective sites.

Inherent selective pulsed chemical vapor deposition of aluminum oxide in nm scale

Inherent selective pulsed chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of aluminum oxide on Si and SiO2 in preference to SiCOH has been studied. SiCOH is alkyl (-CxHy) terminated SiO2, which was used as a non-reactive surface. For aluminum oxide deposition, pulsed CVD processes using aluminum tri sec-butoxide (ATSB) and trimethylaluminum (TMA) were tested. ATSB alone can induce a pulsed thermal CVD reaction to selectively deposit aluminum oxide at 300 °C sample temperature; ∼4 nm of aluminum oxide were selectively deposited on Si and SiO2 in preference to SiCOH. By adding a periodical pulse of TMA during ATSB pulses, higher selectivity was achieved with ∼12 nm and ∼14 nm of aluminum oxide on Si and SiO2 with around 0.4–0.5 nm root mean square (RMS) roughness at 330 °C. The high selectivity persisted on the nanoscale: STEM showed that ∼10 nm of aluminum oxide could be selectively deposited on nanoscale patterned features. The selectively deposited AlOx films showed low k (∼4) dielectric performance with low leakage (around 10−6 A/cm2 at ± 2 V for a 15 nm thick film). This selective aluminum oxide pulsed CVD process has the potential to be applicable in nanoscale fabrication, such as low k spacer and etch stop layer.

Selected Area Deposition of High Purity Gold for Functional 3D Architectures.

Selected area deposition of high purity gold films onto nanoscale 3D architectures is highly desirable as gold is conductive, inert, plasmonically active, and can be functionalized with thiol chemistries, which are useful in many biological applications. Here, we show that high-purity gold coatings can be selectively grown with the Me2Au (acac) precursor onto nanoscale 3D architectures via a pulsed laser pyrolytic chemical vapor deposition process. The selected area of deposition is achieved due to the high thermal resistance of the nanoscale geometries. Focused electron beam induced deposits (FEBID) and carbon nanofibers are functionalized with gold coatings, and we demonstrate the effects that laser irradiance, pulse width, and precursor pressure have on the growth rate. Furthermore, we demonstrate selected area deposition with a feature-targeting resolutions of ~100 and 5 µm, using diode lasers coupled to a multimode (915 nm) and single mode (785 nm) fiber optic, respectively. The experimental results are rationalized via finite element thermal modeling.

Pulsed chemical vapor deposition for crystalline aluminum nitride thin films and buffer layers on silicon and silicon carbide

Low temperature aluminum nitride (AlN) deposition has applications ranging from serving as a heat spreading material to serving as a buffer layer for III-V semiconductors on silicon or silicon carbide (SiC) for radio frequency, power, and microLED devices. While crystalline AlN is traditionally deposited at high temperature (>800 °C), in the present study AlN is deposited on Si(100), Si(111), and 4H-SiC substrates by two modest temperature processes using a metal precursor with high thermal stability, tris(dimethylamido) aluminum (III), and a highly reactive nitrogen source, anhydrous hydrazine. A 580 °C pulsed chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process is compared to a more complex 400 °C atomic layer annealing process, in which the same precursors are utilized with periodic ion bombardment to induce film crystallinity. Films deposited by both processes template preferential c-axis orientation in subsequently sputtered AlN on unheated substrates. Both templating techniques demonstrate equivalent enhancements in crystallinity of the sputtered AlN relative to a non-templated sputtered film by x-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy studies. On 4H-SiC substrates, a comparison of sputtering directly and templating with the 580 °C pulsed CVD process reveals epitaxial deposition by the 580 °C pulsed CVD process which extends into the low temperature sputtered AlN.

Chemical vapor deposition of entropy-stabilized rock-salt type oxide thin films

Here we present the first synthesis of a multi-cationic oxide (MgCoNiCuZn)O by pulsed liquid injection chemical vapor deposition. The synthesis is performed between 400 °C and 550 °C from five metal–organic precursors simultaneously solubilized in dimethoxyethane (DME). The microstructure of the material was studied using HRTEM with HAADF, SEM, EDS, XPS and XRD before and after annealing.

Probing the ultra-low friction mechanism of hydrogenated carbon films with controllable fullerene-like nano-structures grown with different bias voltage

Tribological properties of hydrogenated amorphous carbon films (HACFs) are strongly affected by external atmospheres stimulus. This greatly limited its applications in fields that require special trans-atmospheric environments. Here, a unique fullerene-like (FL) nanostructure was designed to embed in amorphous carbon matrix to improve the friction behavior of HACFs in ambient air. High-frequency pulsed plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition was employed to deposit the films. The HACFs with fullerene-like (FL) characteristics are fabricated with the ‘amorphous to FL’ evolutions. At bias voltage of − 950 V, HACF has the highest odd ring fraction (57.3%) and exhibit the lowest coefficient of friction (0.039) and wear rate (2.2 ×10−8 mm3/Nm) in ambient air. This may provide potential strategies for HACFs to expand the tribology application environments.

Inherent selective pulsed chemical vapor deposition of amorphous hafnium oxide / titanium oxide nanolaminates

Water-free Inherent selective pulsed chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of HfO2/TiO2 nanolaminates on Si and SiO2 in preference to SiCOH has been studied. SiCOH is highly porous alkylated SiO2, which is used as a nonreactive low-k dielectric. Ti(OiPr)4 [titanium(IV) isopropoxide] and Hf(OtBu)4 [Hafnium tert butoxide] were used in the CVD study. Previous studies showed that metal alkoxide precursors could form oxide films through thermal decomposition. However, single oxide films greater than 2 nm can be rough due to crystallization. To solve this issue, HfO2/TiO2 nanolaminate structures were studied. With sequential dosing of each precursor in a supercycle at 300 °C sample temperature, HfO2/TiO2 nanolaminate films with thin (less than 3 nm) sublayers were selectively deposited. The films were smooth with root mean square (RMS) roughness lower than 0.5 nm and almost amorphous from XRD analysis; this is unexpected since both oxides readily crystalize. Amorphous nanolaminate oxide film deposition with high selectivity was achieved by controlling each sublayer thickness and the Hf:Ti ratio. TEM studies proved that ∼ 20 nm of the nanolaminate film could also be selectively deposited on nanoscale patterned surfaces. This selective amorphous nanolaminate oxide CVD process has a potential to be applicable in the nanoscale patterning in MOSFET fabrication.

Application of pulsed chemical vapor deposition on the SiO2-coated TiO2 production within a rotary reactor at room temperature

Pulsed chemical vapor deposition (P-CVD) is a promising technology for the surface modification of TiO 2 particles. For the scale-up application of P-CVD, a custom-designed rotary reactor and corresponding coating process at room temperature was developed in the present work. The obtained SiO 2 -coated TiO 2 particles were characterized by various measures including high-resolution transmission electron microscope, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, etc . The results illustrated that the SiO 2 films with a thickness of (3.7 ± 0.7) nm were successfully deposited onto the surface of TiO 2 particles. According to the dye degradation tests and acid solubility measurement, the deposited film can effectively inhibit the photocatalytic activity and enhance the weatherability of the TiO 2 particles. Zeta potential measurements showed that the SiO 2 -coated TiO 2 is possible to be stably dispersed in the pH range of 6.9–11.6. The coating process made the whiteness of TiO 2 particles decreased slightly but still sufficient (97.3 ± 0.1) for application. Furthermore, the properties of the TiO 2 particles coated by P-CVD were compared with the particles coated by traditional wet chemical deposition. It is shown that the P-CVD can produce thinner but denser films with better photoactivity suppression performance. The developed coating process within the rotary reactor was proved practically feasible and convenient for the scale-up production of SiO 2 -coated TiO 2 via P-CVD.

Laser-Assisted Growth of Carbon-Based Materials by Chemical Vapor Deposition

Carbon-based materials (CBMs) such as graphene, carbon nanotubes (CNT), highly ordered pyrolytic graphite (HOPG), and pyrolytic carbon (PyC) have received a great deal of attention in recent years due to their unique electronic, optical, thermal, and mechanical properties. CBMs have been grown using a variety of processes, including mechanical exfoliation, pulsed laser deposition (PLD), and chemical vapor deposition (CVD). Mechanical exfoliation creates materials that are irregularly formed and tiny in size. On the other hand, the practicality of the PLD approach for large-area high-quality CMB deposition is quite difficult. Thus, CVD is considered as the most effective method for growing CBMs. In this paper, a novel pulsed laser-assisted chemical vapor deposition (LCVD) technique was explored to determine ways to reduce the energy requirements to produce high quality CBMs. Different growth parameters, such as gas flow rate, temperature, laser energy, and deposition time were considered and studied thoroughly to analyze the growth pattern. CBMs are grown on Si and Cu substrates, where we find better quality CBM films on Cu as it aids the surface solubility of carbon. Raman spectroscopy confirms the presence of high-quality PyC which is grown at a temperature of 750 °C, CH4 gas flow rate of 20 sccm, a laser frequency of 10 Hz, and an energy density of 0.116 J/cm2 per pulse. It is found that the local pulsed-laser bombardment helps in breaking the carbon-hydrogen bonds of CH4 at a much lower substrate temperature than its thermal decomposition temperature. There is no significant change in the 2D peak intensity in the Raman spectrum with the further increase in temperature which is the indicator of the number of the graphene layer. The intertwined graphene flakes of the PyC are observed due to the surface roughness, which is responsible for the quenching in the Raman 2D signal. These results will provide the platform to fabricate a large area single layer of graphene, including the other 2D materials, on different substrates using the LCVD technique.

Selective Pulsed Chemical Vapor Deposition of Water-Free TiO2/Al2O3 and HfO2/Al2O3 Nanolaminates on Si and SiO2 in Preference to SiCOH.

Highly selective and smooth TiO2/Al2O3 and HfO2/Al2O3 nanolaminates were deposited by water-free pulsed chemical vapor deposition (CVD) at 300 °C using titanium isopropoxide (Ti(OiPr)4) and hafnium tertbutoxide (Hf(OtBu)4) with trimethylaluminum (TMA). TMA was found to be the key factor for enhancing nucleation selectivity on SiO2 or Si versus SiCOH (hydrophobic, nonporous low k dielectric). With precise dosing of TMA, selective nucleation of TiO2/Al2O3 and HfO2/Al2O3 nanolaminates was achieved and smoother films were formed with higher selectivity compared to single precursor TiO2 and HfO2 CVD. The selectivity of TiO2/Al2O3 nanolaminate deposition increased from 34 to 44 (deposition on Si vs SiCOH), while RMS roughness of the film of Si decreased from 2.8 to 0.38 nm. The selectivity of HfO2/Al2O3 deposition increased from 14 to 73, while the RMS roughness of HfO2/Al2O3 on Si was maintained at a similar value of 0.78 nm. Deposition of water-free pulsed CVD TiO2/Al2O3 and HfO2/Al2O3 nanolaminates was conducted on a Cu/SiCOH patterned sample to study their nanoselectivity. Transmission electron microscopy images of the Cu/SiCOH patterned sample demonstrated that highly selective and smooth TiO2/Al2O3 and HfO2/Al2O3 nanolaminates can be formed on a nanoscale pattern.

Design of Organic-Free Superhydrophobic TiO2 with Ultraviolet Stability or Ultraviolet-Induced Switchable Wettability.

Superhydrophobic TiO2 with great application potential is mainly obtained by surface modification with low surface energy organics, which is easily degraded under sunlight irradiation, which results in the loss of superhydrophobic properties. Herein, we developed a room-temperature pulsed chemical vapor deposition (pulsed CVD) method to develop amorphous TiO2-deposited TiO2 nanoparticles. The ultraviolet stability/ultraviolet-induced reversible wettability switch had been simultaneously realized by different and controllable deposition cycles of amorphous TiO2. The superhydrophobic properties of the organic-free TiO2 were determined by the micrometer-nanometer-sub-nanometer multiscale structure, the multiscale pore structure, and the large Young's contact angle resulting from carboxylic acid adsorption. Also, we found that the adsorption rate and adsorption stability of oxygen and water at the surface oxygen vacancies were the key to facilitate the reversible switching between superhydrophilic and superhydrophobic states, which was well demonstrated by experimental characterization and theoretical simulation. In addition, we also found that the resistance of dense amorphous TiO2 films on the TiO2 surface to the migration of photogenerated electrons and holes was the key to maintain the stable superhydrophobic properties of superhydrophobic TiO2 under ultraviolet illumination. The powders were strongly ground and the coating surface was rubbed on the surface of the sandpaper, which still maintained superhydrophobic properties, providing favorable conditions for the application of superhydrophobic TiO2. This work modulates the ultraviolet stability and dark/ultraviolet-induced switchable superhydrophobicity/superhydrophilicity of coated TiO2 by simply adjusting the number of deposition times in a pulsed CVD process for the first time, thus contributing to the development of organic-free superhydrophobic TiO2.

Pulsed chemical vapor deposition of cobalt and cobalt carbide thin films

Cobalt and cobalt carbide films were successfully fabricated via a simple pulsed chemical vapor deposition (PCVD) technique. The PCVD process employs bis(1,4-di-tert-butyl-1,3-diazadienyl) cobalt as a cobalt precursor. The effect of the reducing agent, H2 gas or H2 plasma, on the chemical composition of the resulting films has been carefully investigated. In the presence of H2 gas, polycrystalline hexagonal close-packed Co was obtained through the thermal decomposition of the Co precursor. When H2 plasma was used as a coreactant, the cobalt carbide was successfully deposited instead. The crystal structure of the deposited film is orthorhombic Co2C. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy results show that all the carbon contained in the films were in form of Co–C. The dependence of deposition temperature on cobalt and cobalt carbide characteristics has also been investigated.