Trimethylaluminum as a reducing agent in the atomic layer deposition of Ti(Al)N thin films

Ti(Al)N thin films were deposited by atomic layer deposition (ALD) from tit anium tetrachloride, ammonia, and trimethylaluminum. The most important rol e of trimethylaluminum. was to act as an extra reducing agent in order to l ower the required deposition temperature. The films were deposited using fo ur different schemes, where the pulsing order and pulse time of the reactan ts, and the deposition temperature, were varied. The film properties were a nalyzed by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), time-of-flight elast ic recoil detection analysis (TOF-ERDA), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and resis tivity measurements. Additionally, the diffusion barrier properties of sele cted 10 nm thick films were studied. Both carbon and aluminum were incorpor ated into the Ti(AI)N films. Despite that, at deposition temperatures of 40 0 degreesC and lower, Ti(AI)N films exhibited better characteristics than T iN films deposited from titanium tetrachloride and ammonia.