Deposition Processes in the Metallorganic Chemical Vapor Deposition of CeO2 Films

This research examines the metallorganic chemical vapor deposition process using tetrakis(3-methyl-3-pentoxy)cerium, Ce[OC(C 2 H 5 ) 2 CH 3 ] 4 , as a source material to prepare CeO 2 films by two different mass spectrometric techniques: ionization by Li + ion attachment and electron impact. The reaction by-products of (C 2 H 5 ) 2 C=CH 2 and H 2 O, respectively resulting from the pyrolysis of the source material and the dehydration reaction at the sticking of the precursor on the substrate surface, were detected as a result of the simple reaction integrated as Ce[OC(C 2 H 5 ) 2 CH 3 ] 4 → CeO 2 + 2H 2 O + 4(C 2 H 5 ) 2 C=CH 2 . The deposition was controlled by two mechanisms: desorption of the adsorbate from the surface site with the activation energy (E a ) = 0.85 eV and decomposition of the source material with that of E a = 0.29 eV.