Diagnostics and Modeling Investigations of Pulsed PECVD. 

The Wolden group has pioneered the use of pulsed plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) as an alternative approach for self-limiting growth, i.e. 1 Å/pulse, of metal oxides (Ta₂O₅, Al₂O₃, ZnO, TiO₂). Deposition rates of 10-30 nm/min have been obtained, which will allow us to extend the atomic scale control of ALD to mesocale structure (50 - 1000 nm). Despite the practical success, our understanding of this dynamic process is in its infancy and process development has been empirical.  The goal of this collaborative project is to develop a fundamental understanding of the process through a combination of extensive diagnostics and state of the art computational modeling. The modeling effort is lead by our collaborator Professor Laxminarayan Raja of the University of Texas at Austin. At present MS candidate Nick Kubala is leading our efforts to introduce a suite of  in situ diagnostics (Langmuir probe, emission spectroscopy, impedance spectroscopy) into one of our reactors and we are actively looking for a new PhD candidate to take over this project.  

Support for this project is being provided by the National Science Foundation's Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems (CBET) organization through awards  #0826323 (CSM) and #0829003 (UT-Austin) and associated REU supplements.