Gas-Phase Electron-Impact Activation of Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) Precursors: MeCpPtMe3

Clinton Lien; Mahsa Konh; Bo Chen; Andrew V Teplyakov; Francisco Zaera

doi:10.1021/acs.jpclett.8b02125

Gas-Phase Electron-Impact Activation of Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) Precursors: MeCpPtMe₃

J Phys Chem Lett. 2018 Aug 16;9(16):4602-4606. doi: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.8b02125. Epub 2018 Aug 1.

Authors

Clinton Lien¹, Mahsa Konh², Bo Chen¹, Andrew V Teplyakov², Francisco Zaera¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry , University of California , Riverside , California 02521 , United States.
² Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry , University of Delaware , Newark , Delaware 19716 , United States.

PMID: 30067025
DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.8b02125

Abstract

The use of gas-phase electron-impact activation of metalorganic complexes to facilitate atomic layer depositions (ALD) was tested for the case of (methylcyclopentadienyl)Pt(IV) trimethyl (MeCpPtMe₃) on silicon oxide films. Uptake enhancements of more than 1 order of magnitude were calculated from X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) data. On the basis of the measured C:Pt ratios, the surface species were estimated to mainly consist of MeCpPt moieties, likely because of the prevalent formation of [MeCpPtMe _x- nH]⁺ ions after gas-phase ionization (as determined by mass spectrometry). Counterintuitively, more extensive adsorption was observed on thick SiO₂ films than on the native thin SiO₂ film that forms on Si(100) wafers, despite the former having virtually no surface OH groups. The adsorption of MeCpPt fragments on silicon oxide surfaces was determined by density functional theory (DFT) calculations to be highly exothermic and to favor attachment to Si-O-Si bridge sites.