In this exploratory project, mathematical models of chemical vapor transport and deposition from the photodissociation of organometallic compounds are developed; they are applied to a set of experiments so as to yield the intrinsic rate parameters for both gas phase and surface reactions. With these rate parameters, a numerical model of a deposition reactor with significant interfacial convective effects is carried out, and the predictions of film growth rate and spatial uniformity will be compared to data. In a companion program, photodissociation of a model organometallic compound is studied experimentally over a range of pressure and compositions. Experimental conditions range from those under which kinetic phenomena control, to conditions at the opposite extreme, where reaction and deposition occur in a flowing system at sufficiently high pressure that diffusive and convective effects dominate the observed deposition rate of the metal film on a surface. This unique joint program will produce an experimental protocol for obtaining kinetic data and mathematical procedures for interpreting the data so as to produce intrinsic kinetic parameters free of artifacts due to gas phase and interfacial transport resistances. Studies of the kinetics of thin film growth are often carried out under conditions such that the intrinsic kinetics are hidden by resistances to gas phase and interface transport. This study is designed to permit accounting for these transport effects so as to produce fundamental kinetic data. Further, a model organometallic compound is selected in this initial study so as to eliminate uncertainties that arise from the complexity of the reaction mechanism.
