PES 449 / PHYS 549        Spring 2000 Physics of Thin Films

Professor/office hours	course syllabus	textbook and reserve books
grading standards	Lecture notes	other thin film links

---

Course Syllabus and Information

This course is designed to provide an introduction to the physics and methods used in the production and characterization of thin films. We will examine what thin films are, their important properties, how they are produced, and how we can characterize them.

Tentative schedule (subject to revision)

Date	Topic area	content	sections in Ohring
Physics of Thin Films
Jan 19	Introduction	Overview of film growth: techniques and physics.	1.1 - 1.4
Jan 24	Basics	Solid State Physics - crystal structure and defects, packing arrangements, close packed planes, thermodynamic vacancy concentration
Jan 26	Basics	Thermodynamics - change in free energy,Ellingham diagrams	1.5
Jan 31	Basics	Thermodynamics - phase diagrams:one component, triple point, binary solid solution,binary eutectic	1.5
Feb 2	Basics	Kinetics - Fick's Laws, Diffusion coef, Arrhenius	1.6, 8.1 - 8.2
Feb 7, 9	Basics	Nucleation and Growth: Homogeneous nucleation, critical radius, nucleation rate	1.7 - 1.8
Feb 9, 14	Film formation	Introduction, Trapping, Capillarity model (heterogeneous nucleation)	5.1 - 5.3
Feb 14, 16	Film formation	Growth modes, island growth, zone models, columnar growth	5.4 - 5.6
Feb 21	Basics	plasma physics
Feb. 23	Film formation	Summary - Deposition parameters and their effects on film growth	FINAL PROJECT TOPIC DUE
Film Deposition
Feb 28	Basic Vacuum	kinetic theory of gasses, flow, substrates, cleaning	2.1
March 1	Evaporation	basic steps, point vs. surface sources purity, hardware	3.1 - 3.4
March 6	Sputtering	sputter yield, alloys, heating	3.5 - 3.6
March 8	Sputtering	methods: dc, RF, magnetron, reactive, ion assisted, ion sources, ion etching	3.7 - 3.8
March 13	MBE	epitaxial films, misfit, strain	Ch. 7
March 15	CVD	reaction types, boundaries and flow	4.1 - 4.5
March 20	CVD	LPCVD, PECVD, LECVD, MOCVD	4.6 FINAL PROJECT OUTLINE DUE
March 22		Other deposition techniques
March 27 - 31	SPRING BREAK
Film Characterization
April 3	Characterization	overview	Ch. 6
April 5	Characterization	imaging techniques	Ch. 6
April 10	Characterization	imaging techniques	Ch. 6
April 12	Characterization	structural techniques	Ch. 6
April 17	Characterization	structural techniques	Ch. 6
April 19	Characterization	chemical techniques	Ch. 6
April 24	Characterization	chemical techniques	Ch. 6
April 26	Characterization	optical techniques	Ch. 6
May 1	Characterization	electro/magnetic techniques	Ch. 6
Properties of Thin Films
	Optical properties	n,k : metals, dielectrics, semiconductors; optics of transparent films, multiple coatings, effective medium theory	Ch. 11
	Electrical and magnetic properties	resistance/resistivity- metals, insulators - models, discontinuous films Hall effect complications, magnetoresistance, magnetic properties	Ch. 10
	Mechanical properties	Stoney formula, thermal stress, relaxation	Ch. 9
	other properties
May 3	student presentations		FINAL PROJECT DUE
May 8	student presentations
May 10	student presentations

Books

Text: "The Materials Science of Thin Films"

M. Ohring, 1992

We will cover parts of Chapters 1 -11 in the text - but not in order.

 

Library Reserve materials (3 day check out):

books:

• Eckertova, L. "Physics of Thin Films"
• Chapman, B.N. and J.C. Anderson "Science and Technology of Surface Coating"

articles: (Collected in one folder):

vacuum:

• V. Comello "RGAs Provide Real Time Process Control" Semiconductor International p. 71, Sept. 1990.
• P. H. Singer "Today's Changing Vacuum Requirements" Semiconductor International p. 59, Sept. 1990.

  deposition:

• R. F. Bunshah and C. V. Deshpandey "Evaporation Processes" MRS Bulletin p. 33, Dec. 1988.
• W. D. Westwood "Sputter Deposition Processes" MRS Bulletin p. 46, Dec. 1988.
• P. Harris "Taking the Lead in Electron-beam Deposition" Vacuum & ThinFilm, Feb. 1999, p. 26.
• B. Heinz "Sputter Target and Thin Film Defects" Vacuum & ThinFilm, October 1999, p. 22.
• G. S. Bales et al., "Growth and Erosion of Thin Solid Films", Science, 249, 264 (1990).
• C. R. M. Grovenor, H. T. G. Hentzell and D. A. Smith, "The Development of Grain Structure During Growth of Metallic Films" Acta Metallurgica 32, 773 (1984).
• * L. A. Stelmack, C. T. Thurman and G. R. Thompson "Review of Ion-assisted Deposition: Research to Production", Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B, 37/38, 787 (1989).
• J. M. Bennett "When is a surface clean ?" p. 29 in Optics and Photonics News, June, 1990.
• H. M. Layton "Ultrasonic Cleaning for Semiconductor Wafer Processing" Microelectronic Manufacturing and Testing Jan. 1983.
• P. J. Martin and D. R. McKenzie, "Make Clean, Dense Films with a Filtered Process", R+D Magazine, October 1990, p. 108.

  characterization:

• D. E. Aspnes "The Accurate Determination of Optical Properties by Ellipsometry" p. 89 in Handbook of Optical Constants of Solids, E. D. Palik, ed.
• R. E. Honig "Surface and Thin Film Analysis of Semiconductor Materials" Thin Solid Films 31, 89 (1976).
• S. Fitzgerald "Analysis of Thin Films and Surfaces", Microscopy and Analysis, July 1995, p. 23.
• L. J. Whitman, J. A. Stroscio, R. A. Dragoset, and R. J. Celotta "Manipulation of Adsorbed Atoms and Creation of New Structures on Room-Temperature Surfaces with a Scanning Tunneling Microscope", Science, 251, 1206 (1991).
• E. Paparazzo, "Applications of Scanning Auger Microscopy to the Analysis of Materials", Microscopy and Analysis, Nov. 1994, p. 9.
•  

Other books which may be of interest (not on reserve):

vacuum:

• Weissler, G. L. and R.W. Carlson "Methods of Experimental Physics" Vol 14. "Vacuum Physics and Technology"
• O'Hanlon, J. F. "A User's Guide to Vacuum Technology" (John Wiley and Sons, 1989)
• Roth, A. "Vacuum Technology" (North-Holland, 1990)
• Delchar, T. A. "Vacuum Physics and Techniques" (Chapman and Hall, 1993)

  deposition:

• Chapman, B.N. and J.C. Anderson "Science and Technology of Surface Coating"
• J. Y. Tsao, "Materials Fundamentals of Molecular Beam Epitaxy" (Academic Press, 1993)
• J. P Hirth and G. M. Pound "Evaporation: Nucleation and Growth Kinetics" (Pergamon Press, Oxford, 1963).
• L. Holland "Vacuum Deposition of Thin Films" (John Wiley and Sons Inc., NY, 1956).

  characterization:

• Ertl, G. and J. Kuppers "Low Energy Electrons and Surface Chemistry"
• J. M. Walls, ed. "Methods of Surface Analysis" (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, 1989).
• D. Briggs and M. P. Seah, eds. "Practical Surface Analysis by Auger and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy" (John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1983).

  general references:

• O. S. Heavens "Thin Film Physics" (Methuen & Co., Ltd., London, 1970).
• L. I. Maissel and R. Glang, eds. "Handbook of Thin Film Technology" (McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York, 1970).
• J. L. Vossen and W. Kern "Thin Film Processes" (Academic Press, Inc., Orlando,1978).
• A. Zangwill, "Physics at Surfaces" (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, 1988).
• O. S. Heavens "Optical Properties of Thin Solid Films" (Dover Publications, New York, 1991).
• Wagendristel and Wang "An Introduction to Physics and Technology of Thin Films" (World Scientific, 1994).
• E. A. Machlin "Materials Science in Microelectronics vol. 1: The Relationships between Thin Film Processing and Structure" (Giro Press 1995).
• E. A. Machlin "Materials Science in Microelectronics vol. 1: The Effects of Structure on Properties in Thin Films" (Giro Press 1998).
• K. Chopra, "Thin Film Phenomena", (McGraw-Hill, 1969).
• K.-N. Tu, J. W. Mayer, and L. C. Feldman, "Electronic Thin Film Science" (Prentice Hall, 1992).

Grading

The course grade will be determined approximately as follows:

homework sets (4 - 6)	30%
exams (2-3)	40 %
critical review of paper	10 %
final project (Due May 3)	20 %