Growth of Praseodymium Oxide and Praseodymium Silicate Thin Films by Liquid Injection MOCVD

Abstract

Thin films of praseodymium oxide have been deposited by liquid injection MOCVD using the volatile praseodymium alkoxide, [Pr(mmp) 3 ] (mmp = 1-methoxy-2-methyl-2-propanolate, OCMe 2 CH 2 OMe). The films were grown over a wide range of substrate temperatures (250±600 C) and were found to consist predominantly of the Pr 6 O 11 phase. Praseodymium silicate films containing~16±22 at.-% Si were deposited over the temperature range 350±550 C using [Pr{N(SiMe 3 ) 2 } 3 ] in the absence of any additional Si source.

An MOCVD Approach to High‐k Praseodymium‐Based Films

“…[60][61][62] Praseodymium thin-film fabrication has taken advantage of b-diketonate precursors as well as of other families including alkoxides and silylamides. [46][47][48][49] Thus, the first-gen- 3 …”

“…[49] The related family of CVD precursors represents a suitable alternative to metal alkylamides and alkoxy silanols for CVD and ALD growth of silicate dielectrics. [79][80][81] In fact, methods based on two different metal and silicon precursors, which allow the growth of films with different metal/ silicon ratios, show some limitations due to the formation of unstable species in the gas phase.…”

“…[44,45] We have reported the first successful fabrication of Pr 2 O 3 films on silicon substrates by MOCVD [46,47] and recently the liquid-injection MOCVD technique has been also applied to the synthesis of praseodymium oxides layers. [48,49] Both these MOCVD processes for praseodymium oxide films represent a really appealing challenge for implementation to large-scale fabrication which may result in superior films, or be complementary to other filmgrowth methods.…”

MOCVD and ALD of High‐k Dielectric Oxides Using Alkoxide Precursors

“…It is significant that growth of PrO x by liquid-injection MOCVD at 450-550°C gave predominantly the oxygen-rich Pr 6 O 11 phase. [74] The reason for this difference may be due to removal of the oxygen-rich [mmp] ligand in ALD by reaction with surface [OH] to produce species such as [Pr(OH) 3-n ], i.e., an environment with less available oxygen. SEM data for the PrO x films showed that they have a very smooth surface morphology with no obvious crystalline structure.…”

“…[70] Simple 3 ]/3 tetraglyme to grow oxide films of La, [73] Pr, [74,75] Nd, [76] and Gd, [77] 3 ]/3 tetraglyme to grow thin films of praseodymium oxides on Si(100) over a wide range of substrate temperatures from 250 to 600°C. [74] XRD data for PrO x films deposited between 400 and 550°C in the presence of oxygen indicated that the layers were comprised predominantly of the b-Pr 6 O 11 phase. Analysis of the Pr 6 O 11 films by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed that all the as-grown films exhibited a columnar growth habit.…”