9632719 Hampden-Smith/Kodas U. New Mexico This Small Grant for Exploratory Research is made in the Office of Special Projects of the Chemistry Division in support of the collaborative research of Drs. Mark Hampden-Smith and Toivo Kodas at the University of New Mexico. The goal of the research is the development of a general strategy for the Chemical Vapor Deposition of early transition metal and metal nitride films for largely microelectronic applications. The generality of the approach will be determined over a range of metals, metal alloys and binary and ternary nitrides which can be formed. A range of reductants will be evaluated experimentally, assisted by thermodynamic calculations. Films will be deposited under UHV conditions and analyzed by SIMS for purity, SEM for thickness and microstructure, XRD for phase identification and four point resistivity probe for morphology and purity. The ability to deposit high purity Group IV-VI metals and metal nitrides under mild conditions is of great potential significance for microelectronic applications. These materials are currently used as adhesion layers and diffusion barriers in integrated circuits and are deposited by high temperature methods such as sputtering or plasma deposition. A low temperature deposition method will provide films of purity and conformality which cannot be achieved by thermal methods.
