Low-Temperature, Single-Source, Chemical Vapor Deposition of Molybdenum Nitride Thin Films

The 1,4-di-tert-butyl-1,3-diazabutadiene adduct of bis(tert-butylimido)dichloro-molybdenum(VI), (tBuN)2MoCl2·dad, was used as a single-source precursor for the chemical vapor deposition of molybdenum nitride from 350 – 600ºC. Deposition at 400 ºC had a growth rate of 55 nm·h−1 and was comprised of a mixture of Mo2N and MoN, based on X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and grazing-incidence X-ray diffraction results. The films are essentially featureless and are as smooth as the underlying substrate, based on atomic force microscopy measurements. Because the depositions could be carried out at a low temperature there was minimal carbon (1.4%) inclusion in the film as shown by XPS.