Argonne National Laboratory

Research Highlight | Materials Science

Calibrated measurement of atomic layer deposition (ALD) reaction heat
In a study published in Chemistry of Materials, researchers report a new approach to measuring reaction heat in atomic layer deposition that will enable improved understanding of numerous ALD reaction mechanisms.
(upper) in situ calorimeter in ALD chamber with laser calibration. (lower) Fitted voltage response of three calorimeter designs to laser calibration.

Scientific Achievement

Unique design, calibration, and signal modeling for in situ pyroelectric calorimetry of ALD enables quantitative measurement of surface chemistry heat for comparison to computationally-predicted enthalpies.

Significance and Impact

The unmatched sensitivity of this novel method finally affords the precision required to investigate nucleation or selective growth of far sub-monolayer surface reactions.

Research Details

  • World-unique capability: signal 200-fold greater than the most sensitive ALD calorimeter reported to date (also by us) and with a time resolution that is improved by 105
  • First calibrated measurement of trimethylaluminum (TMA) ALD half-reaction heat = 96 μJ/cm2 over 30 ms, with thermal resolution to 0.1 μJ/cm2
  • Already improved thermal isolation, location flexibility, pre-amp, MAC valve sync and trigger since publishing.

DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemmater.1c01745

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