Effect of O₃ on Growth of Pt by Atomic Layer Deposition

The growth characteristics of Pt deposited by atomic layer deposition (ALD) with methylcyclopentadienyltrimethylplatinum (MeCpPtMe 3 ) and O 3 are studied both experimentally and by modeling. The growth rate of Pt ALD using O 3 is higher than that using either air or O 2 counter reactants. In addition, a low deposition temperature of 150 °C for the deposition of metallic Pt using O 3 is obtained. To investigate the role of O 3 during initial growth, Pt is deposited on O 3 -pretreated SiO 2 using air as the counter reactant. Pt deposited in this way on O 3 -pretreated SiO 2 shows a rapid increase of surface coverage, which is similar to Pt ALD using O 3 and different from Pt ALD using air on untreated SiO 2 . From the modeling study, it is found that pretreating the surface with O 3 increases the steady state nucleation rate and decreases the nucleation incubation time on the SiO 2 surface, the same phenomena which are believed to occur during the initial growth of ALD Pt using O 3 counter reactant.