Atomic layer deposition （ALD） technique is used in the preparation of organic/inorganic layers, which requires uniform surfaces with their thickness down to several nanometers. For film with such thickness, the growth mode defined as the arrangement of clusters on the surface during the growth is of significance. In this work, Al2O3 thin film was deposited on various interfacial species of pre-treated polyethylene terephthalate （PET, 12 μm） by plasma assisted atomic layer deposition （PA-ALD）, where trimethyl aluminium was used as the Al precursor and O2 as the oxygen source. The interracial species, -NH3, -OH, and -COOH as well as SiCHO （derived from monomer of HMDSO plasma）, were grafted previously by plasma and chemical treatments. The growth mode of PA-ALD Al2O3 was then investigated in detail by combining results from in-situ diagnosis of spectroscopic ellipsometry （SE） and ex-situ characterization of as-deposited layers from the morphologies scanned by atomic force microscopy （AFM）. In addition, the oxygen transmission rates （OTR） of the original and treated plastic films were measured. The possible reasons for the dependence of the OTR values on the surface species were explored.
Without extra heating, Al2O3 thin films were deposited on a hydrogen-terminated Si substrate etched in hydrofluoric acid by using a self-built electron cyclotron resonance （ECR） plasma-assisted atomic layer deposition （ALD） device with Al（CH3）3 （trimethylaluminum; TMA） and O2 used as precursor and oxidant, respectively. During the deposition process, Ar was in- troduced as a carrier and purging gas. The chemical composition and microstructure of the as-deposited Al2O3 films were characterized by using X-ray diffraction （XRD）, an X-ray photo- electric spectroscope （XPS）, a scanning electron microscope （SEM）, an atomic force microscope （AFM） and a high-resolution transmission electron microscope （HRTEM）. It achieved a growth rate of 0.24 nm/cycle, which is much higher than that deposited by thermal ALD. It was found that the smooth surface thin film was amorphous alumina, and an interfacial layer formed with a thickness of ca. 2 nm was observed between theAl2O3 film and substrate Si by HRTEM. We conclude that ECR plasma-assisted ALD can growAl2O3 films with an excellent quality at a high growth rate at ambient temperature.
In this paper, we reported nano-scale SiOx coatings deposited on polyethylene terephthalate （PET） webs by microwave surface-wave assisted plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition for the purpose of improving their barrier properties. Oxygen （O2） and hexamethyl- disiloxane （HMDSO） were employed as oxidant gas and Si monomer during SiOx deposition, re- spectively. Analysis by Fourier transform infrared spectroscope （FTIR） for chemical structure and observation by atomic force microscopy （AFM） for surface morphology of SiO~ coatings demon- strated that both chemical compounds and surface feature of coatings have a remarkable influence on the coating barrier properties. It is noted that the processing parameters play a critical role in the barrier properties of coatings. After optimization of the SiOx coatings deposition conditions, i.e. the discharge power of 1500 W, 2 ： 1 of O2 ： HMDSO ratio and working pressure of 20 Pa, a better barrier property was achieved in this work.
In this paper, we report silicon oxide coatings deposited by plasma enhanced chem- ical vapor deposition technology （PECVD） on 125 pm polyethyleneterephthalate （PET） surfaces for the purpose of the shelf lifetime extension of sealed polymer solar cells. After optimiza- tion of the processing parameters, we achieved a water vapor transmission rate （WVTR） of ca. 10-a g/m2/day with the oxygen transmission rate （OTR） less than 0.05 cc/m2/day, and succeeded in extending the shelf lifetime to about 400 h in structure of coatings related to the properties of encapsulated solar cells. And then the chemical encapsulated cell was investigated in detail
In this paper,a W-Cu composite coating was prepared on the Cu substrate through the double-glow discharge technology using a pure W plate as a target.In here argon gas was input into the chamber as the discharge and sputtering gas.The crystal composition and microstructure of W-Cu composite coating were examined by x-ray diffraction(XRD),scanning electron microscopy(SEM).The compose in the cross section was detected by energy dispersive spectrometer(EDS),the distribution of elements along the penetration thickness was then obtained.Then the friction coefficient,the polarization electrochemical corrosion test and the microhardness of W-Cu composite coating was measured.The results indicated that a thick and no-delaminated W-Cu composite coating could be prepared on the Cu substrate by the double-glow plasma technology.
Metal aluminum （A1） thin films are prepared by 2450 MHz electron cyclotron resonance plasma-assisted atomic layer deposition on glass and p-Si substrates using trimethylaluminum as the precursor and hydrogen as the reductive gas. We focus our attention on the plasma source for the thin-film preparation and annealing of the as-deposited films relative to the surface square resistivity. The square resistivity of as-deposited A1 films is greatly reduced after annealing and almost reaches the value of bulk metal. Through chemical and structural analysis, we conclude that the square resistivity is determined by neither the contaminant concentration nor the surface morphology, but by both the crystallinity and crystal size in this process.
