Disk hydrogen plasma assisted chemical vapor deposition of aluminum nitride

We employ a well-confined hydrogen plasma of disk shape both as a vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) lamp operating primarily at 121.5 nm and as a source of atomic hydrogen radicals. Both VUV photons and atomic hydrogen act to dissociate feedstock gases used in low-temperature (<400 °C) metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). Thin films have been deposited both with the confined hydrogen plasma and with an excimer laser operating at 193 nm in order to compare the two methods. Preliminary chemical and electrical properties of the films deposited via the two methods indicate the superiority of the atomic hydrogen assisted MOCVD technique.