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Abstract As atomic layer deposition (ALD) emerges as a method to fabricate architectures with atomic precision, emphasis is placed on understanding surface reactions and nucleation mechanisms. ALD of titanium dioxide with TiCl4and water has been used to investigate deposition processes in general, but the effect of surface termination on the initial TiO2nucleation lacks needed mechanistic insights. This work examines the adsorption of TiCl4on Cl−, H−, and HO− terminated Si(100) and Si(111) surfaces to elucidate the general role of different surface structures and defect types in manipulating surface reactivity of growth and non‐growth substrates. The surface sites and their role in the initial stages of deposition are examined by X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Density functional theory (DFT) computations of the local functionalized silicon surfaces suggest oxygen‐containing defects are primary drivers of selectivity loss on these surfaces.
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This content will become publicly available on December 1, 2025
Preparation of Br-terminated Si(100) and Si(111) surfaces and their use as atomic layer deposition resists
In area-selective processes, such as area-selective atomic layer deposition (AS-ALD), there is renewed interest in designing surface modification schemes allowing to tune the reactivity of the nongrowth (NG) substrates. Many efforts are directed toward small molecule inhibitors or atomic layers, which would modify selected surfaces to delay nucleation and provide NG properties in the target AS-ALD processes allowing for the manufacturing of smaller sized features than those produced with alternative approaches. Bromine termination of silicon surfaces, specifically Si(100) and Si(111), is evaluated as a potential pathway to design NG substrates for the deposition of metal oxides, and TiO2 (from cycles of sequential exposures of tetrakis-dimethylamido-titanium and water) is tested as a prototypical deposition material. Nucleation delays on the surfaces produced are comparable to those on H-terminated silicon that is commonly used as an NG substrate. However, the silicon surfaces produced by bromination are more stable, and even oxidation does not change their chemical reactivity substantially. Once the NG surface is eventually overgrown after a large number of ALD cycles, bromine remains at the interface between silicon and TiO2. The NG behavior of different crystal faces of silicon appears to be similar, albeit not identical, despite different arrangements and coverage of bromine atoms.
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- PAR ID:
- 10545289
- Publisher / Repository:
- IOP
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology A
- Volume:
- 42
- Issue:
- 6
- ISSN:
- 0734-2101
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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