Multiple short pulse process for low-temperature atomic layer deposition and its transient steric hindrance

Abstract

Low-temperature atomic layer deposition (ALD) is increasingly used in the field of organic optoelectronics. However, the deposition of ALD outside the temperature window still cannot be stably implemented. In this study, transient steric hindrance caused by gas-phase molecules at low-temperature (80 °C and 30 °C) was investigated. In order to mitigate the effect of this transient hindrance, a process of consecutive short-pulses was adopted in our experiments. As a result, the density of Alucone films increased from 2.21 g/cm3 to 2.37 g/cm3 and the density of room-temperature deposited Al2O3 films increased 28.6% from 2.41 g/cm3 to 3.1 g/cm3. Overall, the proposed idea would help low-temperature ALD become mature and be widely promoted.