Fabrication of ZrO ₂ and ZrN films by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition employing new Zr precursors

The application of new zirconium precursors for the fabrication of ZrO ₂ and ZrN thin films by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) is presented. The all-nitrogen coordinated Zr precursors exhibit improved thermal properties for vapor phase fabrication of thin films. The growth of ZrO ₂ thin films was realized by the combination of the Zr complex with oxygen, while the formation of ZrN thin films was achieved for the first time employing a single source precursor (SSP) approach. This was enabled by the presence of nitrogen containing ligands which contributes to the formation of the ZrN phase without the need for any additional nitrogen source in contrast to classical film growth processes for ZrN thin films. In the first step the newly developed precursors were evaluated thoroughly for their use in MOCVD applications, and in the next step they were utilized for the growth of ZrO ₂ and ZrN thin films on Si(100) substrates. Polycrystalline ZrO ₂ films that crystallized in the monoclinic phase and the fcc-ZrN films oriented in the (200) direction were obtained, and their structure, morphology, and composition were analyzed by a series of techniques. This work shows the potential of tuning precursors for vapor phase fabrication of Zr containing thin films with a goal of obtaining two different classes of material systems (ZrO ₂ and ZrN) using one common precursor.