High-Throughput Growth of HfO2 Films Using Temperature-gradient Laser Chemical Vapor Deposition

The use of hafnia (HfO2) has facilitated recent advances in combining uprated dielectric layers (UDLs) and environmental barriers (EBs) in supercomputers. However, an extremely low deposition rate limits further development and fabrication efficiency of HfO2 films. In this study, high-throughput growth of HfO2 films was realized via laser chemical vapor deposition using a laser spot with a gradient temperature distribution. In HfO2 films fabricated by a single growth process, four regions with different morphologies could be discerned for deposition temperatures increasing from 1300 K to 1600 K: leaf-like, pyramid-like, bromeliad-like and pinecone-like. Two growth modes were observed for Regions I and II: Stranski-Krastanov and Volmer-Weber. Regions III and IV contained coexisting monoclinic and tetragonal HfO2 grains with an in-plane boundary for m-HfO2 (-110) {111}//t-HfO2 (1-11) {111}. The maximum deposition rate reached 362 μm/h, which was 102 - 104 times higher than that obtained using existing deposition methods.