Paper MS-TuA4
In-Situ Characterization Tools for Materials Growth and Processing at NSLS-II

Tuesday, November 8, 2016, 3:20 pm, Room 103A

Driven by the needs of sub-15nm integrated chip design, power electronics, and energy conversion devices, a wide range of coating and etching processes are in development which allow single layer growth or removal controlled by complex chemical processes on the substrate and/or in the gas phase resulting in self-limiting growth/etching approaches. The invention of new processes for conventional and spatial Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) is one of the most prominent applications; even if it has a potentially high impact on the technology, used by everybody in future, it faces the challenge of an enormously large parameter space and costly and lengthy experiments developing the various precursor compounds. A theory inspired approach, combining combinatorial methods with computational modeling, may significantly reduce the risks and costs of the development process; however, to connect both approaches, an in-situ characterization tool will be required characterizing structure, and chemistry of the surface compounds, the gas and the film itself. X-ray spectroscopic and scattering/diffraction techniques may be the probes which provides chemical and structural sensitivity under complex reaction conditions.

NSLS-II had developed a set of beamlines which combine high-end state-of-the-art beamline design with optimized endstation design for materials growth. Specifically, the talk will provide an overview on the scattering and spectroscopy capabilities at In-Situ and Resonant scattering (ISR) beamline and the Inner Shell Spectroscopy beamline (ISS); two instruments build to study the growth of amorphous and crystalline films from the early seed formation to the bulk-like film. Next to an introduction into the beamline and its endstation equipment, we will also present experimental data which demonstrate the power of in-situ chracterization.