Wet-cleaning of MgO(001): Modification of surface chemistry and effects on thin film growth investigated by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectroscopy

Abstract

The effect of the wet-cleaning process using solvents and detergent on the surface chemistry of MgO(001) substrate for film deposition was investigated. Six different wet-cleaning processes using solvent and detergent were compared. The effect on film growth was studied by the example system ScN. The surface chemistry of the cleaned surface was studied by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and the film/substrate interface after film growth was investigated by time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectroscopy. The surface composition is dependent on the wet-cleaning process. Sonication in a detergent before the solvents yield a pure oxide surface compared to hydroxide/carbonate contaminated surface for all the other processes. An annealing step is efficient for the removal of carbon contamination as well as most of the hydroxide or carbonates. The study of the film/substrate interface revealed that the wet-cleaning process significantly affects the final interface and film quality. The substrate cleaned with detergent followed by solvent cleaning exhibited the cleanest surface of the substrate before annealing, after annealing, in addition to the sharpest film/substrate interface. (C) 2017 American Vacuum Society.<p>Funding Agencies|European Research Council under the European Communitys Seventh Framework Programme (FP) [335383]; Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation through the Wallenberg Academy Fellows program; Swedish Research Council (VR) [6212012-4430]; Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (SSF) through the Future Research Leaders 5 program; Swedish Government Strategic Research Area in Materials Science on Functional Materials at Link_oping University [2009-00971]</p

Structural and mechanical properties of amorphous AlMgB14 thin films deposited by DC magnetron sputtering on Si, Al2O3 and MgO substrates

“…B, Al and Mg elemental magnetron sputtering targets were mounted at a distance (from target center to substrate) of 180 mm for Mg, B and 150 mm for Al. The deposition system and geometry are described in detail elsewhere [19,21]. The deposition was carried out on an MgO (001), Al 2 O 3 (0001) and Si (001) substrates at temperatures of 25, 250 and 350 °C.…”

“…In most studies, AlMgB 14 was prepared on Si substrates, while, for example, in thermoelectric devices, to avoid thermal and electrical leakage through the substrate, the device layer is preferred to be on the insulator. Therefore, deposition on lower thermal conductivity materials in comparison to Si, like Al 2 O 3 and MgO substrates [18][19][20] can be preferable for some applications. In this study, we synthesize ternary boride AlMgB 14 films by DC magnetron sputtering with a three-target magnetron sputtering system on Si (001), Al 2 O 3 (0001) and MgO (001) substrates at temperature range of 25-350 °C.…”

Optimization of the electron transport in quantum dot light-emitting diodes by codoping ZnO with gallium (Ga) and magnesium (Mg)

“…Fig. 2(b) 9,19,20 Relative O II ratio decreases by 37.26%, 11.46%, 14.5%, and 3.03% in ZnO, ZMO, ZGO, and ZGMO NPs respectively, which indicates the reduction of 21,22 In Fig. 4(a), the normalized absorbance spectra in UV and visible light region of ZGO, ZMO, and ZGMO NPs are distinctive from ZnO NPs.…”

Phase Transformation and Superstructure Formation in (Ti0.5, Mg0.5)N Thin Films through High-Temperature Annealing

“…The films were deposited onto (0001) sapphire substrates (10 mm × 10 mm × 0.5 mm), ultrasonically cleaned with commercially available detergents (3 min), de-ionized water, acetone and ethanol (10 min each) and blown dry using N 2 . The details of the cleaning method and detergent can be found elsewhere [34]. The substrates were heated 400 • C for one hour prior to the deposition process; the temperature was maintained until the end of the process.…”