Thin film solar cells made from earth-abundant, non-toxic materials are needed to replace the current technology that uses Cu(In,Ga)(S,Se) 2 and CdTe, which contain scarce and toxic elements. One promising candidate absorber material is tin monosulfide (SnS). In this report, pure, stoichiometric, single-phase SnS films were obtained by atomic layer deposition

Rare earth oxide (REO) atomic layer deposition (ALD) processes are investigated for hydrophobic coatings. Thermal and plasmaenhanced ALD (PE-ALD) Er 2 O 3 and Dy 2 O 3 are developed using the newly synthesized Er and Dy precursors bis-methylcyclopentadienyl-diisopropylacetamidinate-erbium and bis-isopropylcyclopentadienyl-diisopropyl-acetamidinate-dysprosium, with H 2 O and O 2 plasma counter oxidants. The Er and Dy precursors show typical ALD growth characteristics with no nucleation incubation, indicating that they are suitable ALD precursors. The hydrophobicities of ALD-grown Er 2 O 3 and Dy 2 O 3 are investigated, together with those of ALD-grown Y 2 O 3 , La 2 O 3 , and CeO 2 that were previously developed for high-k applications. All the ALD-grown REOs show high hydrophobicity, with water contact angles as high as 90°. After annealing at 500 °C in air for 2 h, hydrophobicity is degraded depending on the kind of material; this degradation is related to the hygroscopy of REOs. In addition, we demonstrate the fabrication of a superhydrophobic surface by depositing highly conformal ALD REO films on 3D Si nanowire nanostructures. The Si NWs are conformally coated with ALD Y 2 O 3 , yielding a surface with a water contact angle of about 158°. The ALD REOs reported herein should find widespread applicability in the fabrication of robust hydrophobic coatings.

We investigated atomic layer deposition (ALD) of B 2 O 3 and SiO 2 thin films using trimethylborate (TMB) and bis-(diethylamino)silane (SAM-24) precursors, focusing on growth characteristics and film properties. For both cases, ALD processes using O 3 and O 2 plasma as reactants exhibited well-defined growth saturation and linear growth behavior without any incubation cycles, and produced highly pure, stoichiometric films. In the case of B 2 O 3 films, however, SiO 2 layer passivation is required onto the B 2 O 3 due to a spontaneous decomposition caused by moisture in air. On the basis of electrical characterization, the detailed dielectric properties of SiO 2 and B 2 O 3 /passivation SiO 2 films were extensively discussed including the k-value, flat band voltage, and leakage currents. Then, boron-doped SiO 2 films with different B/(B + Si) compositions were prepared by controlling B 2 O 3 and SiO 2 growth cycles, followed by drive-in annealing and a subsequent wet removal process. Based on both theoretical estimation and SIMS depth profile results, we demonstrated that the surface doping concentration is effectively modulated with controllable B doping contents in the B-doped SiO 2 films.

The surfaces of boron nanoparticles 10-150 nm in diameter, prepared by gas phase pyrolysis of decaborane vapour at 1 atm and 700-900 degrees C, can be halogenated by treatment with Br2 or XeF2; the surface halogenation somewhat increases the onset temperature for the oxidation of the particles under O2.

The Y2O3 films grown with a new and heteroleptic liquid Y precursor, (iPrCp)2Y(iPr-amd), have been investigated with chemical properties of precursor, atomic layer deposition process, and material characterization of the deposited film and its non-volatile resistive switching behaviour.