Comparative Study of Thermal and Plasma-Enhanced Atomic Layer Deposition of Iron Oxide Using Bis(N,N′-di-butylacetamidinato)iron(II)

Only a few iron precursors that can be used in the atomic layer deposition (ALD) of iron oxides have been examined thus far. This study aimed to compare the various properties of FeO(x) thin films deposited using thermal ALD and plasma-enhanced ALD (PEALD) and to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of using bis(N,N′-di-butylacetamidinato)iron(II) as an Fe precursor in FeO(x) ALD. The PEALD of FeO(x) films using iron bisamidinate has not yet been reported. Compared with thermal ALD films, PEALD films exhibited improved properties in terms of surface roughness, film density, and crystallinity after they were annealed in air at 500 °C. The annealed films, which had thicknesses exceeding ~ 9 nm, exhibited hematite crystal structures. Additionally, the conformality of the ALD-grown films was examined using trench-structured wafers with different aspect ratios.