Atomic layer controlled film growth is an important technological and scientific goal that is closely tied to many issues in surface chemistry. This article first reviews the basic concepts of atomic layer growth using molecular precursors and binary reaction sequence chemistry. Many examples are given for the various films that have been grown using this atomic layer growth technique. The paradigms for atomic layer epitaxy (ALE) and atomic layer processing (ALP) are then discussed in terms of self-limiting surface reactions. Recent investigations of the surface chemistry of SiO2 and Al2O3 ALP and GaAs ALE are examined and used to illustrate the possible mechanisms of atomic layer growth. Subsequently, the characteristics of film deposition using atomic layer growth techniques are explored using recent examples for Al2O3 ALP. The structure of the deposited films is also reviewed using results from previous Al2O3 deposition investigations. This article then concludes by discussing possible complications to studies of atomic layer controlled growth using binary reaction sequence chemistry.

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Films of silicon dioxide (SiO2) were deposited at room temperature by means of catalyzed binary reaction sequence chemistry. The binary reaction SiCl4 + 2H2O --> SiO2 + 4HCl was separated into SiCl4 and H2O half-reactions, and the half-reactions were then performed in an ABAB ellipsis sequence and catalyzed with pyridine. The pyridine catalyst lowered the deposition temperature from >600 to 300 kelvin and reduced the reactant flux required for complete reactions from approximately 10(9) to approximately 10(4) Langmuirs. Growth rates of approximately 2.1 angstroms per AB reaction cycle were obtained at room temperature for reactant pressures of 15 millitorr and 60-second exposure times with 200 millitorr of pyridine. This catalytic technique may be general and should facilitate the chemical vapor deposition of other oxide and nitride materials.