This collaborative award, made under the Materials Chemistry and Chemical Processing Initiative, is supported by the Divisions of Chemistry and Materials Research. A series of new copper(I) compounds will be prepared and evaluated for CVD based on criteria such as vapor pressure, deposition rate, deposit purity, morphology and resistivity. Precursors which deposit high-purity copper films will be the subject of surface studies to probe deposition mechanisms. These studies will focus on understanding the fundamental mechanistic aspects of CVD by means of Reactive Scattering and Thermal Desorption Mass Spectrometry, Auger Electron Spectroscopy and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy. These techniques will be used to identify reaction products, to study modes of adsorption, binding energies and oxidation states of adsorbed species, and to examine adsorption/desorption kinetics, film homogeneity and impurity levels. %%% New methods of copper deposition are of great interest to the electronics industry. Understanding the surface chemistry as a function of the nature of the copper ligands will aid in the design of new molecular precursors that result in lower decomposition temperatures and higher purity films.
