This award to Prof. Charles Winter at Wayne State University is supported by the Advanced Materials and Processing Program in the Chemistry Division. The research will focus on new precursors and processes for tantalum nitride and related thin film materials. New low temperature routes to binary and ternary transition metal nitrides of tantalum, niobium, zirconium and hafnium will be developed with particular emphasis on tantalum nitride thin films. Specific objectives are: (1) synthesis and characterization of tantalum complexes with a range of nitrogen-containing ligands such as alkyl hydrazines, 1,3-diaryltriazines, pyrazoles, 1,2,4-triazoles and tetrazoles as single source precursors for nitrides; (2)examination of chemical vapor deposition reactions of the nitrogen ligands and tantalum (V) source compounds as low temperature routes to nitride films; (3) development of ternary tantalum-silicon nitrides by addition of volatile silicon sources; and, (4) extension of the tantalum technology to other early transition metal nitrides. Nitride films will be characterized by x-ray diffraction, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and Rutherford back-scattering. Nitride thin films are recognized for a wide range of important properties including hardness, chemical resistance, electrical conductivity and desirable optical properties. Currently, nitride films are made by high temperature sputtering. The early transition metal nitrides studied in this research will be prepared by low temperature chemical vapor deposition and will impact the development of barrier materials for microelectronic applications, particularly between silicon and copper substrates in integrated circuits. The synthetic chemistry of single source precursors will also lead to new early transition metal complexes of fundamental interest to structural inorganic chemistry.
