Design of Metal-Organic Molecular Precursors for Atomic Layer Deposition

In past decades, miniaturization of materials was immanent in all fields of technology, especially in semiconductor industry. Nowadays, miniaturization of semiconducting compounds reached a level where established manufacturing processes reach their technical limits. Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) offers an alternative method for the deposition of ultra-thin metallic films, which is a crucial step in the fabrication of semiconducting compounds. Based on a chemical reaction between surface and gas phase, ALD is a process which touches both synthetic chemistry and material sciences.
This PhD thesis focuses on the development of new chemicals for the use as precursor in ALD. Within a research and development cooperation with BASF, the properties of a new series of cobalt and nickel silylamido complexes in solution, in the solid state and in the gas phase are studied and evaluated with respect to their use as ALD precursor. Furthermore, deposition experiments of tantalum and molybdenum chalcogenides were performed to test the application of ALD in the field of electrochemical water splitting.