New Heteroleptic Germanium Precursors for GeO₂ Thin Films by Atomic Layer Deposition

This study describes the synthesis of 12 new germanium complexes containing β-diketonate and/or N-alkoxy carboxamidate-type ligands as precursors for GeO₂ through atomic layer deposition (ALD). A series of Ge(β-diketonate)Cl complexes such as Ge(acac)Cl (1) and Ge(tmhd)Cl (2) were synthesized by using acetylacetone (acacH) and 2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-3,5-heptanedione (tmhdH). N-Alkoxy carboxamidate-type ligands such as N-methoxypropanamide (mpaH), N-methoxy-2,2-dimethylpropanamide (mdpaH), N-ethoxy-2-methylpropanamide (empaH), N-ethoxy-2,2-dimethylpropanamide (edpaH), and N-methoxybenzamide (mbaH) were used to afford further substituted complexes Ge(acac)(mpa) (3), Ge(acac)(mdpa) (4), Ge(acac)(empa) (5), Ge(acac)(edpa) (6), Ge(acac)(mba) (7), Ge(tmhd)(mpa) (8), Ge(tmhd)(mdpa) (9), Ge(tmhd)(empa) (10), Ge(tmhd)(edpa) (11), and Ge(tmhd)(mba) (12), respectively. Thermogravimetric analysis curves, which mostly exhibited single-step weight losses, were used to determine the evaporation properties of complexes 1-12. Interestingly, liquid complex 2 has no residue at 198 °C and therefore exhibits excellent vaporization properties and high volatility. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction studies of 1 and 7 demonstrated that the complexes had monomeric molecular structures with germanium chelated by the oxygen atoms of one or two bidentate ligands, respectively. An ALD process was developed for the growth of GeO₂ using Ge(tmhd)Cl (2) as a new precursor and H₂O₂ as an oxidant. This study demonstrates the achievement of self-limiting growth of GeO₂ films by varying the duration of injection/purge, with an observed ALD window at deposition temperatures ranging from 300 to 350 °C. The saturated growth per cycle of the GeO₂ film was determined as 0.27 Å/cycle at a deposition temperature of 300 °C. The deposited films were observed to be amorphous consisting of GeO₂.