Surface preparation influence on the initial stages of MOCVD growth of TiO2 thin films

In situ chemical surface analyses using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), completed by ex situ atomic force microscopy (AFM) analyses, were performed in order to compare the initial stages of MOCVD growth of TiO 2 thin films on two different surface types. The first type was a silicon native oxide free hydrogen terminated surface and the second one was a silicon dioxide surface corresponding to a thin layer of 3.5 nm thick in situ thermally grown on silicon substrate. Si(100) was used as substrate, and the growths of TiO 2 thin films were achieved with titanium tetraisopropoxide (TTIP) as precursor under a temperature of 675 °C, a pressure of 0.3 Pa and a deposition time of 1 h. Whate…