Hafnium Oxide Nanostructured Thin Films: Electrophoretic Deposition Process and DUV Photolithography Patterning

In the frame of the nanoarchitectonic concept, the objective of this study was to develop simple and easy methods to ensure the preparation of polymorphic HfO(2) thin film materials (<200 nm) having the best balance of patterning potential, reproducibility and stability to be used in optical, sensing or electronic fields. The nanostructured HfO(2) thin films with micropatterns or continuous morphologies were synthesized by two different methods, i.e., the micropatterning of sol-gel solutions by deep ultraviolet (DUV) photolithography or the electrophoretic deposition (EPD) of HfO(2) nanoparticles (HfO(2-NPs)). Amorphous and monoclinic HfO(2) micropatterned nanostructured thin films (HfO(2-DUV)) were prepared by using a sol-gel solution precursor (HfO(2-SG)) and spin-coating process following by DUV photolithography, whereas continuous and dense monoclinic HfO(2) nanostructured thin films (HfO(2-EPD)) were prepared by the direct EPD of HfO(2-NPs). The HfO(2-NPs) were prepared by a hydrothermal route and studied through the changing aging temperature, pH and reaction time parameters to produce nanocrystalline particles. Subsequently, based on the colloidal stability study, suspensions of the monoclinic HfO(2-NPs) with morphologies near spherical, spindle- and rice-like shapes were used to prepare HfO(2-EPD) thin films on conductive indium-tin oxide-coated glass substrates. Morphology, composition and crystallinity of the HfO(2-NPs) and thin films were investigated by powder and grazing incidence X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and UV-visible spectrophotometry. The EPD and DUV photolithography performances were explored and, in this study, it was clearly demonstrated that these two complementary methods are suitable, simple and effective processes to prepare controllable and tunable HfO(2) nanostructures as with homogeneous, dense or micropatterned structures.