Low-Temperature and Photoactivated CVD on Organic Substrates

Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is an attractive technique for depositing metallic thin films on organic substrates. However, CVD often uses temperatures > 500 °C to initiate precursor decomposition and generate highly reactive species. This can be problematic when using attempting to deposit on organic thin films as they can degrade at temperatures < 200 °C. Here we offer an alternative to thermal activation by using photolysis to generate reactive species at room temperature. In this work we monitor decomposition pathways of photoactivated precursors by employing TOF SIMS to identify molecular species remaining on the surface as well as test the integrity of the surface post-deposition. XPS is used to identify organic surface- metal interactions, and finally RGA is used to identify gas-phased decomposition products to further identify photolytic pathways. In identifying the decomposition pathway, we aim to use this understanding to further improve the deposition of metal on organic substrates.