title: Inhibiting Metal Oxide Atomic Layer Deposition: Beyond Zinc Oxide.
abstract: Atomic layer deposition (ALD) of several metal oxides is selectivity inhibited on alkanethiol self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) on Au, and the eventual nucleation mechanism is investigated. The inhibition ability of the SAM is significantly improved by the in situ H2-plasma pretreatment of the Au substrate prior to the gas-phase deposition of a long-chain alkanethiol, 1-dodecanethiol (DDT). This more rigorous surface preparation inhibits even aggressive oxide ALD precursors, including trimethylaluminum and water, for at least 20 cycles. We study the effect that the ALD precursor purge times, growth temperature, alkanethiol chain length, alkanethiol deposition time, and plasma treatment time have on Al2O3ALD inhibition. This is the first example of Al2O3ALD inhibition from a vapor-deposited SAM. The inhibitions of Al2O3, ZnO, and MnO ALD processes are compared, revealing the versatility of this selective surface treatment. Atomic force microscopy and grazing-incidence X-ray fluorescence further reveal insight into the mechanism by which the well-defined surface chemistry of ALD may eventually be circumvented to allow metal oxide nucleation and growth on SAM-modified surfaces.
authors.affiliation: Material Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory , 9700 South Cass Avenue, Lemont, Illinois 60439, United States.
authors.forename: Matthew D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Sampson
authors.affiliation: Material Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory , 9700 South Cass Avenue, Lemont, Illinois 60439, United States.|Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University , 2220 Campus Drive, Evanston, Illinois 60208, United States.
authors.forename: Jonathan D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Emery
authors.affiliation: Material Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory , 9700 South Cass Avenue, Lemont, Illinois 60439, United States.
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Pellin
authors.affiliation: Material Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory , 9700 South Cass Avenue, Lemont, Illinois 60439, United States.
authors.forename: Alex B F
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3916-1672
authors.initials: ABF
authors.lastname: Martinson
keywords: alkanethiols; aluminum oxide; atomic layer deposition; manganese oxide; metal oxides; selective deposition; self-assembled monolayers; zinc oxide