A new N‐heterocyclic carbene (NHC)‐based silver amide compound, 1,3‐di‐tert‐butyl‐imidazolin‐2‐ylidene silver(I) 1,1,1‐trimethyl‐N‐(trimethylsilyl)silanaminide [(NHC)Ag(hmds)] was synthesized and analyzed by single‐crystal X‐ray diffraction, 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopy, as well as EI mass spectrometry, and subsequently evaluated for its thermal characteristics. This new halogen‐ and phosphine‐free Ag atomic layer deposition (ALD) precursor was tested successfully for silver thin film growth in atmospheric pressure plasma enhanced spatial (APP‐ALD). High‐purity conductive Ag thin films with a low sheet resistance of 0.9 Ω/sq (resistivity: 10−5 Ωcm) were deposited at 100 °C and characterized by X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, optical transmittance, and Rutherford back‐scattering techniques. The carbene‐based Ag precursor and the new APP‐ALD process are significant developments in the field of precursor chemistry as well as metal ALD processing.

Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) is known for its versatile properties and hence promising for a wide range of applications. The fabrication of high-quality MoS2 either as homogeneous films or as two-dimensional...

This is the first report on a plasma enhanced spatial atomic layer deposition (APP-ALD) process at atmospheric pressure to grow conducting metallic Cu thin films from a carbene stabilized precursor.

Owing to the limited availability of suitable precursors for vaporp hase deposition of rare-earth containing thin-filmm aterials, new or improved precursors are sought after.I nt his study,w ee xplored new precursors for atomic layer deposition(ALD)o fc erium (Ce) and ytterbium(Yb) containing thin films. As eries of homoleptic tris-guanidinate and tris-amidinatec omplexes of cerium (Ce) and ytterbium (Yb) were synthesized andt horoughlyc haracterized. The Csubstituents on the N-C-N backbone (Me, NMe 2 ,N Et 2 ,w here Me = methyl, Et = ethyl) and the N-substituents from symmetrical iso-propyl (iPr) to asymmetrical tertiary-butyl (tBu) and Et were systematically varied to study the influence of the substituents on the physicochemical properties of the resulting compounds. Single crystal structures of [Ce(dpdmg) 3 ] 1 and [Yb(dpdmg) 3 ] 6 (dpdmg = N,N'-diisopropyl-2-dimethylamido-guanidinate) highlightamonomeric nature in the solid-state with ad istorted trigonal prismatic geometry.T he thermogravimetric analysis shows that the complexes are volatile and emphasize that increasing asym-metryi nt he complexes lowers their meltingp oints while reducingt heir thermal stability.D ensityf unctionalt heory (DFT) was used to study the reactivity of amidinates and guanidinates of Ce and Yb complexes towards oxygen (O 2) and water (H 2 O). Signified by the DFT calculations, the guanidinates show an increased reactivity toward water compared to the amidinate complexes. Furthermore,t he Ce complexes are more reactive compared to the Yb complexes,i ndicating even ar eactivity towards oxygen potentiallye xploitable for ALD purposes. As arepresentative precursor,the highly reactive [Ce(dpdmg) 3 ] 1 wasu sed for proof-of-principleA LD depositions of CeO 2 thin films using watera sc o-reactant. The self-limited ALD growth process could be confirmed at 160 8Cw ithp olycrystalline cubic CeO 2 films formed on Si(100) substrates. This study confirmst hat moving towards nitrogen-coordinated rare-earth complexes bearing the guanidinate and amidinate ligands can indeed be very appealing in terms of new precursors for ALD of rare earth based materials.