Characterization of titanium dioxide atomic layer growth from titanium ethoxide and water

Abstract Atomic layer growth of titanium dioxide from titanium ethoxide and water was studied. Real-time quartz crystal microbalance measurements revealed that adsorption of titanium ethoxide is a self-limited process at substrate temperatures 100–250°C. A relatively small amount of precursor ligands was released during titanium ethoxide adsorption while most of them was exchanged during the following water pulse. At temperatures 100–150°C, incomplete reaction between surface intermediates and water hindered the film growth. Nevertheless, the deposition rate reached 0.06 nm per cycle at optimized precursor doses. At substrate temperatures above 250°C, the thermal decomposition of titanium ethoxide markedly influenced the growth process. The growth rate increased with the reactor temperature and titanium ethoxide pulse time but it insignificantly depended on the titanium ethoxide pressure. Therefore reproducible deposition of thin films with uniform thickness was still possible at substrate temperatures up to 350°C. The films grown at 100–150°C were amorphous while those grown at 180°C and higher substrate temperature, contained polycrystalline anatase. The refractive index of polycrystalline films reached 2.5 at the wavelength 580 nm.