Structural Evolution of Molybdenum Disulfide Prepared by Atomic Layer Deposition for Realization of Large Scale Films in Microelectronic Applications

Steven Letourneau, Elton Graugnard, Matthias J. Young, Nicholas M. Bedford, Yang Ren, Angel Yanguas-Gil, Anil U. Mane, Jeffrey W. Elam

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

34 Scopus citations

Abstract

Molybdenum disulfide (MoS 2 ) films are attractive materials for electronic and optoelectronic devices, but the temperatures used in the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of these materials are too high for device integration. Recently, a low-temperature atomic layer deposition (ALD) process was demonstrated for growth of MoS 2 films at 200 °C using MoF 6 and H 2 S. However, the as-deposited films were amorphous and required annealing to obtain the desired layered structure. The MoS 2 films were sulfur-deficient; however, after annealing the crystallinity improved. To study the structure of these films and the process by which they crystallize, we performed X-ray absorption spectroscopy and high-energy X-ray scattering experiments on both as-deposited and annealed MoS 2 films. Analysis indicated that molybdenum atoms in the as-deposited films were well coordinated with sulfur but not well coordinated with other molybdenum atoms when compared to a crystalline reference. Further analysis revealed clusters of the sulfur-rich phase [Mo 3 S(S 6 ) 2 ] 2– , which decomposed after annealing in H 2 and H 2 S at 400 and 600 °C. When compared to the sulfur-deficient films reported previously for this ALD process, the sulfur-rich phase found here indicates that nucleation on the substrate plays an important role in the resulting film stoichiometry, which could be tuned to produce higher quality films for microelectronic applications.

Original languageAmerican English
Pages (from-to)4028-4037
Number of pages10
JournalACS Applied Nano Materials
Volume1
Issue number8
DOIs
StatePublished - 24 Aug 2018

Keywords

  • X-ray absorption spectroscopy
  • atomic layer deposition
  • high-energy X-ray diffraction
  • molybdenum disulfide
  • reverse Monte Carlo

EGS Disciplines

  • Materials Science and Engineering

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