AVS 47th International Symposium
    Thin Films Tuesday Sessions
       Session TF-TuP

Paper TF-TuP13
Oxidation Kinetics of the Growth of Thin Alumina formed by Plasma Oxidation

Tuesday, October 3, 2000, 5:30 pm, Room Exhibit Hall C & D

Session: Poster Session
Presenter: A. Quade, University of Greifswald, Germany
Authors: A. Quade, University of Greifswald, Germany
H. Wulff, University of Greifswald, Germany
Correspondent: Click to Email
Plasma treatment is an original way to modify the surface of metals and to improve their properties for an application in industry. In our study thin Al films were plasma oxidized using a 2.45 GHz slot antenna microwave plasma source (SLAN) at different types of chemical reactive and non-reactive plasma species to form thin aluminium oxide films. To determine the activation energy for plasma oxidation process investigations at different substrate temperatures were performed. For the characterization of the Al and the developed oxide grazing incidence x-ray reflectometry (GIXR), grazing incidence x-ray diffractometry (GIXRD), Fourier-Transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were used. Because the formed alumina is x-ray amorphous, the integral intensity of Al(111) peak of the non-reacted Al film was determined time-controlled for the quantification of the developed oxide. Together with the total thickness of the layer these values allow the calculation of significant kinetic parameters. The alumina film growth is controlled by two rival processes, a diffusion process and a sputter process. The growth kinetics depends on plasma type, concentration of activated oxygen species and temperature.