Low-temperature roll-to-roll atmospheric atomic layer deposition of Al₂O₃ thin films

The Al2O3 thin films deposition through conventional ALD systems is a well-established process. The process under low temperatures has been studied by few research groups. In this paper, we report on the detailed study of low-temperature Al2O3 thin films deposited via a unique in-house built system of roll-to-roll atmospheric atomic layer deposition (R2R-AALD) using a multiple-slit gas source head. Al2O3 thin films have been grown on polyethylene terephthalate substrates under a very low-temperature zone of room temperature to 50 °C and working pressure of 750 Torr, which is very near to atmospheric pressure (760 Torr). Al2O3 thin films with superior properties were achieved in the temperature range of the ALD window. An appreciable growth rate of 0.97 Å/cycle was observed for the films deposited at 40 °C. The films have good morphological features with a very low average arithmetic roughness (Ra) of 0.90 nm. The films also showed good chemical, electrical, and optical characteristics. It was observed that the film characteristics improve with the increase in deposition temperature to the range of the ALD window. The fabrication of Al2O3 films was confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis with the appearance of Al 2p, Al 2s, and O 1s peaks at the binding energies of 74, 119, and 531 eV, respectively. The chemical composition was also supported by the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The fabricated Al2O3 films demonstrate good insulating properties and optical transmittance of more than 85% in the visible region. The results state that Al2O3 thin films can be effectively fabricated through the R2R-AALD system at temperatures as low as 40 °C.