A study of nucleation and growth in MOCVD: The growth of thin films of alumina

We have studied the nucleation and growth of alumina by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). The deposition of alumina films was carried out on Si(100) in a horizontal, hot-wall, low pressure chemical vapor deposition (CVD) reactor, using aluminum acetylacetonate ${Al(acac)_3}$ as the CVD precursor. We have investigated growth of alumina films as a function of different CVD parameters such as substrate temperature and total reactor pressure during film growth. Films were characterized by optical microscopy, X-ray diffractometry (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), cross-sectional SEM, and secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) compositional depth profiling. The chemical analysis reveals that the carbon is present throughout the depth of the films