Development of Volatile Inorganic Compounds and Their Application for Chemical Vapour Deposition of Metal and Metal Oxide Thin Films

Abstract

Chemical vapour deposition is a necessary and important technology for the manufacture of nano-thin metal films. The reactivity and thermal stability of the metal complexes used in this process are key to the deposition process.Through logical design, guanidinate ligands have evolved into iminopyrrolidinates to prevent decomposition pathways. These ligands were first tested on aluminum metal centres. Iminopyrrolidinates have been further stabilized with additional methyl moieties and have led to promising new copper precursors. Copper metal is desirable for interconnecting material in electronics due to its high conductivity.The reactivity of 1,3-diisopropyl-imidazolin-2-ylidene copper hexamethyl disilazide has been explored and yielded three new copper metal compounds.Sputtered thin films of gold have been used in metal assisted chemical etching to produce high aspect ratio structures on the surface of silicon substrates. PrefaceHere are the full bibliographical details for all reproduced publications included in this thesis. The supervisor, Seán T. Barry, and the student, Agnieszka Kurek, confirm that the student was fully involved in setting up and conducting the research, obtaining data and analyzing results, as well as preparing and writing the material presented in the co-authored articles integrated in this thesis. Additionally, the supervisor confirms the information provided by the student in this preface.To cite material from this thesis, please cite both this thesis and the relevant article from the chapter, if the chapter is based on a published work. Kurek, A.; Gordon, P.G.; Karle, S.; Devi, A.; Barry, S.T. Recent Advances Using Guanidinate Ligands for Chemical Vapour Deposition (CVD) and Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) Applications, Aust. J. Chem. 2014, 67, 989-996. Wasslen, Y.A.; Kurek, A.; Johnson, P.A.; Pigeon, T.C.; Monillas, W.H.; Yap, G.P.A.; Barry, S.T. Coyle, J.P.; Pallister, P.J.; Kurek, A.; Sirianni, E.R.; Yap, G.P.A.; Barry, S.T. Copper Iminopyrrolidinates: A Study of Thermal and Surface Chemistry, Inorg. Chem. 2013, 52, 910.