The inclusion of plasma in atomic layer deposition processes generally offers the benefit of substantially reduced growth temperatures and greater flexibility in tailoring the gas-phase chemistry to produce specific film characteristics. The benefits plasmas provide, however, come at the cost of a complex array of process variables that often challenge the ability to predict, a priori, the influence of any one input parameter. In this work, the authors attempt to provide some clarity as to how plasmas are formed and controlled and how they can most optimally be employed within the framework of atomic layer deposition. To begin, the authors cover some of the fundamentals of plasma generation along with the production of energetic and reactive species and their transport within the plasma. They then focus on how different plasma generation schemes and geometries, often employed in plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD), differ in their production of energetic and reactive species. They also address the plasma-surface interactions that are critical for film growth and control of crystallinity. Throughout this work, the authors use both current experimental data and a review of previously published works to describe how variations in the approach to plasma generation and the interactions between plasma-produced species and the growth surface influence the plasma reactant step in PEALD processes. The authors highlight two case studies to demonstrate how these relationships can be used to control the phase purity of crystalline titanium dioxide (TiO₂) films and grow crystalline growth of semiconducting indium nitride (InN).

中文翻译：

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等离子体在晶体膜的等离子体增强原子层沉积中的作用

原子层沉积工艺中包含等离子体通常具有大幅降低生长温度和在调整气相化学性质以产生特定膜特性方面更大灵活性的优势。然而，等离子提供的好处是以一系列复杂的过程变量为代价的，这些过程变量通常会挑战先验的预测能力，任何一个输入参数的影响。在这项工作中，作者试图就如何形成和控制等离子体以及如何在原子层沉积的框架内最优化地利用等离子体提供一些清晰度。首先，作者介绍了等离子体生成的一些基本原理，以及高能和反应性物种的产生及其在等离子体中的传输。然后，他们将重点放在常用于等离子体增强原子层沉积（PEALD）中的不同等离子体生成方案和几何形状在其高能和反应性物质产生方面的差异。它们还解决了等离子体-表面相互作用，这对于薄膜生长和结晶度控制至关重要。在整个工作中 作者使用当前的实验数据和对以前发表的著作的回顾来描述等离子体产生方法的变化以及等离子体产生的物种与生长表面之间的相互作用如何影响PEALD过程中的等离子体反应步骤。作者重点介绍了两个案例研究，以说明如何利用这些关系来控制结晶二氧化钛（TiO₂）薄膜和生长结晶生长的半导体氮化铟（InN）。