New Spatial Atomic layer deposition precursors and plasma processes towards functional materials for advanced applications – REACTIVE

Spatial Atomic Layer Deposition (SALD) is a recent variation of atomic layer deposition (ALD) that, while retaining the unique assets of ALD, namely, thickness control down to the nanometer, unique film conformality and high material quality at low temperatures, is up to two orders of magnitude faster, even at atmospheric pressure, and thus results more appealing than ALD for scaling-up and mass production. While the chemistry of SALD and ALD are in principle the same, given that most SALD approaches are performed at atmospheric pressure, and even in the open air, the development of new precursors being more stable and volatile that the typical ones used in ALD is required. Similarly, plasma activation needs to be performed at high pressure, using atmospheric plasmas, and thus new protocols need to be optimized to expand the panoply of materials that can be accessed by atmospheric-plasma-activated SALD. REACTIVE proposal proposes to develop new precursors and plasma processes specially developed for open-air SALD. The new precursors and plasma processes developped will be used to deposit new oxides and oxynitrides for application in optoelectronic devices. On the one hand, oxide thin films will be used to fabricate and demonstrate all-oxide solar cells based on innovative p-type oxide semiconductors. On the other hand, Oxynitride thin films will be used to fabricate advanced transparent conductive materials.