In Situ and Real-Time Nanoscale Monitoring of Ultra-Thin Metal Film Growth Using Optical and Electrical Diagnostic Tools.

Continued downscaling of functional layers for key enabling devices has prompted the development of characterization tools to probe and dynamically control thin film formation stages and ensure the desired film morphology and functionalities in terms of, e.g., layer surface smoothness or electrical properties.

Interfacial Silicide Formation and Stress Evolution during Sputter Deposition of Ultrathin Pd Layers on a-Si.

Synchrotron experiments combining real-time stress, X-ray diffraction, and X-ray reflectivity measurements, complemented by in situ electron diffraction and photon electron spectroscopy measurements, revealed a detailed picture of the interfacial silicide formation during deposition of ultrathin Pd layers on amorphous silicon. Initially, an amorphous PdSi interlayer is formed. At a critical thickness of 2.

Epitaxial growth of Cu(001) thin films onto Si(001) using a single-step HiPIMS process.

We report on a new route to grow epitaxial copper (Cu) ultra-thin films (up to 150 nm thick) at ambient temperature on Si(001) wafers covered with native oxide without any prior chemical etching or plasma cleaning of the substrate. It consists of a single-step deposition process using high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) and substrate biasing. For a direct current (DC) substrate bias voltage of -130 V, Cu/Si heteroepitaxial growth is achieved by HiPIMS following the Cu(001) [100]//Si(001) [110] orientation, while under the same average deposition conditions, but using conventional DC magnetron sputtering, polycrystalline Cu films with [111] preferred orientation are deposited.