We describe the use of extremely conformal chemical vapor deposition to coat carbon nanotube forests throughout their depth with a film of HfB₂, a mechanically hard, electrically conductive and highly refractory alloy. CVD uses the precursor Hf(BH₄)₄ at partial pressures ≤ 15 Torr at substrate temperatures ≤ 200°C. The CNT forests are up to 500 µm thick and can be shaped by pre-depositing patterns of seed metal on the underlying substrate prior to their synthesis.

Coating CNT forests affords a new class of composite foams with adjustable mechanical properties : the HfB₂ coating both stiffens individual tubes and “welds” them together wherever they touch, whereas in the uncoated forest the tubes can slide relative to one another. We fabricate cylindrical pillar structures with HfB₂ thicknesses from 3-50 nm. As measured by nanoindentation using a flat punch, the Young’s modulus varies over three orders of magnitude as E ~ ρ^1.7, where the mass density ρ is dominated by the HfB₂ coating. The maximum stiffness and strength are 56 and 1.9 GPa, respectively.

A major question is how CVD can achieve a nearly uniform coating in such a deep structure. The challenge is inherent in the diffusion-reaction kinetics : the transport of reactants occurs by molecular diffusion, which is slow in narrow cross-sections; while at the same time the reaction (consumption) rate must be high enough to be useful. In combination, these factors imply that the partial pressure (flux) of reactants must diminish with depth; if the film growth rate varies monotonically with flux, then the coating thickness must decline with depth in the structure.

The solution is to (i) employ a precursor that exhibits a hard saturation in the growth rate vs. partial pressure, (ii) use a high partial pressure above the sample, and (iii) grow at low temperature to limit the reaction rate. Under these conditions, even though the partial pressure of precursor drops considerably from the top to the bottom of the sample, the growth rate remains almost constant. To achieve the high precursor pressure, we employ a static (unpumped) reaction tube apparatus. We previously derived a master relationship [1] that predicts the precursor pressure (p) necessary to achieve a desired step coverage (SC) and growth rate (GR) in a given aspect ratio (AR) given knowledge of the atomic density (r), growth rate coefficient (K) and molecular diffusivity (D₀): p = (GR AR) * ((c r kT) / (2 D K) * (1 - SC))^0.5

We will discuss extension of this method to other thin film systems and substrate geometries.

1. A. Yanguas-Gil, Y. Yang, N. Kumar, and J. R. Abelson, JVST A 27, 1235 (2009) [DOI: 10.1116/1.3207745]

Platinum nanoparticles (NPs) play an important role in the catalytic applications such as conversion of automotive exhaust, fuel cells, nano sensing and so on. For most catalytic applications, sintering of Pt NPs is undesired since the coalescence decreases the number of active sites of the catalyst. Herein we report the utilization of active oxide layers to encapsulate Pt NPs to enhance sintering resistance at high working temperature. The active oxide coated catalysts have additional metal-oxide interfaces which may further improve the catalytic activity besides good sintering resistance. Nickel oxide coating layer is prepared via atomic layer deposition (ALD) method. The effect of layer thickness towards catalytic properties and thermal stability for CO oxidation are investigated. The thickness of nickel oxide coating layer was controlled accurately by varying the ALD cycles. Characterizations including TEM, XPS, FTIR and XAFS were undertaken to explore the origin of the CO oxidation catalytic activity enhancement. In-situ AFM test is carried out to explore the mechanism of nanoparticles migration and sintering phenomenon in different environment by controlling the calcination temperature and oxygen partial pressure. Nickel oxide anchors Pt NPs with a strong metal oxide interaction, and coating structure around Pt NPs provide physical blocking that suppresses NP particle migration and coalescence. The catalysts show both enhanced CO conversion activity and improved sintering resistance up to 700 °C under oxidative atmospheric conditions.

The search for adequate binary metal oxide dielectric nanolaminates (NLs) to prevent degradation of power semiconductor devices is ongoing and involves the atomic layer deposition (ALD)-growth of a variety of binary metal oxide combinations. In the present work, we explore the ALD growth of amorphous (x)HfO₂/(y)Al₂O₃ NLs on Si (with native SiO­₂ layer) substrates and then on both GaN and Ga₂O₃ single crystals. A variety of samples ranging from their homogeneous mixtures to HfO₂ or Al₂O₃-rich NLs are assessed before and after a thermal annealing by spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE), X-ray reflectometry (XRR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and 4-point probe resistivity measurements in order to elucidate the structural evolution of the NL at the GaN (or Ga₂O₃)-NL interface. By quantifying the HfO₂ incorporation throughout the Al₂O₃ layer and using the programmable nature of ALD to alternate layers of the HfO₂ and Al₂O₃ in an (AB)_x-(CD)_y fashion, the influence of HfO₂ mobility within Al₂O₃ layer on the NL dielectric constant can be verified unequivocally. Moreover, combined X-ray absorption near-edge (XANES) and X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) spectroscopy data obtained at the Advanced Photon Source will confirm the local coordination environment of the Ga at the GaN (or Ga₂O₃)-HfO₂ interface and, at low super-cycle numbers (sub-nm scale), the ultimate stability of the NLs can be probed and optimized such that the bulk material properties are retained.

Multiferroic materials, which exhibit the coexistence and coupling between ferroelectricity and magnetism, are of great interest due to their potential for enabling next-generation memories. To overcome the scarcity and weak responses of single-phase multiferroics, composite strategies were proposed for a robust multiferroic behavior by coupling the functional properties through the interface. By interfacing magnetostrictive and piezoelectric materials, the strain-mediated coupling strategy holds great promise, while both the interfacial-area-per-volume and the quality of interfaces play important roles in attainable functional properties. To obtain applicable magnetoelectric (ME) coupling under such scheme, lead-free multiferroic BiFeO₃ (BFO) and ferrimagnetic CoFe₂O₄ (CFO) were used in this study due to their robust functionality.

With the aim of enhancing the coupling by nanostructuring, atomic layer deposition (ALD), with its high quality and conformal film growth, was employed to achieve BFO/CFO composites with closely coupled interfaces and industrial scalability. BFO and CFO with were synthesized by radical enhanced ALD on SrTiO₃ (001) substrates using tmhd-based organometallic precursors(tmhd=2,2,6,6-tetramethylheptane-3,5 dione). The use of oxygen radicals as the oxidant provides a low temperature processing capability at 200°C. Post-deposition thermal treatments promotes the crystallization of both the BFO and CFO films and thus comparable functional properties were obtained. 2D-2D BFO/CFO composites were then synthesized by combining the ALD processes, with an optimized functionality obtained by nanolayering. ME behaviors comparable to previously studied multiferroic composites were observed, and the scaling of materials leads to an enhancement in the coupling coefficient (≈64 Oe cm/kV). The change in magnetic domains upon electrical poling was characterized using scanning SQUID. The 2D-2D BFO/CFO on SrTiO₃-buffered Si substrates exhibited comparable ME behaviors to the case on SrTiO₃, illustrating a path to integrate multiferroic materials into current industrial processes by ALD.

0D-3D BFO/CFO was realized by incorporating ALD-grown BiFeO₃ and mesoporous CFO substrates. Composite functionality as well as ME coupling were studied as a function of residual porosity after ALD filling. Higher BFO incorporation increases the overall ferroelectricity but limits the strain interaction due to a decreased mechanical flexibility. The strain interaction was verified by the change in lattice parameters observed using high-resolution XRD measurements. The results showed that the residual porosity is the key for ME coupling in a strain-mediated scheme.

The downscaling of future semiconductor devices with increasing 3D character has lead to increasing demand of highly conformal thin films. Atomic layer deposition (ALD), based on the use of repeated, self-terminating reactions of typically at least two compatible reactants on a solid substrate, is often the only technique that can meet the conformality specifications. Conformal films made by ALD are also needed in other fields with intrinsic three-dimensionality requirements such as microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and porous particle based applications (e.g., catalysis).

This work overviews recent progress in thin film conformality analysis made with the microscopic lateral high-aspect-ratio (LHAR), especially the “PillarHall” structures developed at VTT. Significant progress has taken place during the past year in the design and fabrication of the structures, conformality testing by academic and industrial partners, as well as modelling. The key feature of VTT’s PillarHall structures is the existence in silicon of a lateral gap of controlled height, typically 500 nm (can be varied from wafer to wafer, 100 to 2000 nm demonstrated), and controlled length up to 5 mm (several variations inside one chip, starting from 1 µm). Test structures with aspect ratio (AR) up to 50 000 : 1 ("hole-equivalent AR (EAR)" up to 25 000 : 1) have been fabricated this way. Growth of thin film inside the controlled 3-D gap and analysis of the film thereafter, often after removing the top part of the test structure by applying an adhesive, reveals the film thickness and composition profile. As compared to conventional vertical trenches etched into silicon, with VTT’s lateral PillarHall test structures, one can in a significantly shorter time obtain more detailed information on the conformality, which can be used for optimising processes, designing new processes, and investigating the fundamental mechanisms behind the deposition processes. Three scientific publications [1-3] report on the use of PillarHall 1^st generation prototypes. At the time of writing this abstract, we work with 3^rd generation prototypes and design the 4^th generation.

Acknowledgements: Funding for the development of the conformality test structures has come from the Academy of Finland’s Finnish Centre of Excellence in Atomic Layer Deposition and the Tekes PillarHall project.

[1] Gao et al., J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A, 33 (2015) 010601 (5 pages). http://dx.doi.org/10.1116/1.4903941

[2] Mattinen et al., Langmuir 32 (2016) 10559-10569. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.langmuir.6b03007

[3] Puurunen & Gao, IEEE Xplore 2017, http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7886526/