Research Interests:

Novel Thin Film Materials for

Electronics and Photonics Applications

Research Summary:

His research interests include: a) the study of surface morphology during film growth and etching, in particular the effect of shadowing induced 3D nanostructures; b) the use of diffraction and real space imaging techniques to capture the morphology of growth fronts; and c) the growth and characterization of metal, ceramic, and polymeric films for microelectronic and photonic applications.

Research Projects:

1. Morphological evolution of films:

Experimental and theoretical study of the morphological evolution of film growth and etching driven by noise and shadowing during sputter deposition, chemical vapor deposition, and plasma etching. Shadowing induced 3D nanostructures include nano-mechanical systems and photonic bandgap devices.

Si nanosprings grown by oblique angle deposition

2. Real-time diffraction during film growth:

Development of real-time diffraction techniques such as electron, X-ray, and light from the growth front during deposition. Properties such as morphology, density, crystal orientation, and texture of the films can be obtained. Such thin film material information is extremely important for future nano-electronic applications.

3. Surface passivation and atomic layer deposition:

Ultra-thin metal films less than 5 nm are deposited using atomic the layer deposition technique. The technique allows us to grow unusually thin and uniform films as well as nano-structures using templated substrates. 

4. Deposition of novel low and high dielectric constant films:

We are developing techniques that allow us to grow novel low and high dielectric films for nano-electronic and photonic device applications. Examples are polymers, ceramics, and organic self-assembly monolayers. Vapor deposition techniques have been developed for polymeric film growth. Novel pulsed sputtering has been developed for the sputter deposition of ceramic films.

Group Members

• Pei-I Wang (Senior Research Scientist)
• Dexian Ye (Postdoc)
• Fu Tang (Postdoc)
• Huafang Li (Postdoc)
• Zonghuan Lu (Postdoc)
• Gregory Ten Eyck (PhD, 2007)
• Cynthia Gedelian (PhD, 2008)
• Tom Parker (PhD, 2009)
• Tim Walsh (PhD, 2009)
• Ya Ou (PhD, 2009)
• Matthew Pelliccione (PhD, 2009)
• Ming He (PhD, 2010)
• Chris Johansen (2010)

Lab Techniques Utilized

Deposition Techniques

• Oblique angle deposition
• RPIB (Reactive Partially Ionized Beam)
• Atomic layer deposition (ALD)
• Pulsed DC Magnetron Sputtering
• Vacuum Evaporation
• CVD (Chemical Vapor Deposition)

Analysis Techniques

• XPS (X-ray Photoelectric Spectroscopy)
• RHEED (Reflection High Energy Electron Diffraction)
• SEM (Scanning Electron Microscopy)
• FTIR (Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy)
• XRD (X-ray Diffraction)
• UV (Ultraviolet) Absorption Spectroscopy
• C-V (Capacitance-Voltage) Analysis
• I-V (Current-Voltage) Analysis
• SIMS (Secondary Ion Mass Spectroscopy)
• AFM (Atomic Force Microscopy)
• STM (Scanning Tunneling Microscopy)
• DSC (Differential Scanning Calorimetry)
• NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) Spectroscopy
• RBS (Rutherford Backscattering Spectometry)
• TEM (Tunneling Electron Microscopy)
• Ellipsometry
• Electron Microprobe
• High Frequency Testing

Former PhD students and thesis topics

Joseph Pimbley - "Diffraction from Imperfect Surfaces and Overlayers" - May 1985
     H.B. Huntington Award for outstanding graduate work
     Co-winner of Karen & Lester Gerhardt Award for best thesis
     Present employment: GE

Justin Wong - "Partially Ionized Beam Deposition of Silicon Dioxide and Aluminum Thin Films" - May 1987
     H.B. Huntington Award for outstanding graduate work
     Present employment: IBM

Simon Yang - "Cluster Beam and Partially Ionized Beam Deposition" (Materials Sci. & Engr. Department) - December 1987
     Co-winner of Karen & Lester Gerhardt Award for best thesis
     Present employment: Chief Technology Officer, Chartered Semiconductor.

Andrie Yapsir - "Effects of Hydrogen Implantation on Metal-semiconductor Interfaces" - December 1988
     Co-winner of the Karen & Lester Gerhardt Award for best thesis
Co-winner of the H.B. Huntington Award for outstanding graduate work
     Present employment: IBM (recently back to Indonesia)

Peng Bai - "Effects of Low Energy Ion Bombardment on the Growth of Cu Films" - February 11, 1991
     Present employment: Intel Corporation

H.-N. Yang - "High Resolution LEED Studies of Surface Instabilities" -December 1991 (co-advised with G.-C. Wang)
     American Vacuum Society Graduate Student Research Award
One of the three finalists for the 1991 Russell and Sigurd Varian Fellowship Award at the American Vacuum Society
     H. B. Huntington Award for outstanding graduate work
    Present employment: Motorola

Ping Li - "Study of Amorphous BaTiO3 Thin Films"-May 1992
     Present employment: MA/COM

T. Nason - "Interactions of Ag Films with Semiconductor Surfaces" - Dec. 1992
     Present employment: Entrepreneur, started his own company

X.-M. Wu - "Conduction Mechanisms in TaOx Films"-May 1993
     H. B. Huntington Award for outstanding graduate work
     Present employment: Analog

Steve W. Liu - "Characterization of Broad Band BaTiO3 Thin Films"-Aug. 1993
Barden best thesis award (Chemistry)
     Present employment: President, Hua-Hong/NEC Semiconductor Manufacturing Company

Lu You -"Deposition of Parylene Thin Films"-Dec. 1993
     Present employment: AMD (Advanced Micro Devices)

B. Gittleman - " The Effects of Low Energy Ion Bombardment on the Growth of Thin Films: Model and Experiment"- March 1995
     Present employment: MRC (Materials Research Corporation)

X.-F. Ma- "Vapor Deposited Polymeric-Organic Composite Films"- March 1995 (Co-advised with Dr. X-C. Zhang)
     Co-winner of the Karen & Lester Gerhardt Award for best thesis
     Present employment: Evergreen Solar

Steve Soss - "The Effect of Texture on the Resistivity of Thin Metallic Face-Centered Cubic Films"-Dec. 1995
     H. B. Huntington Award for outstanding graduate work
Finalist for the Materials Research Society Graduate Research Award
     Present employment: Intel Corporation

Ke Chen- "Experimental Study of the Al-Ta2O5-Al Structure"- Sept. 1996
     H. B. Huntington Award for outstanding graduate work
     Present employment: Eaton Corporation

Kevin Mello- "Structural and Electrical Characteristics of CoGe2 Alloy Films Deposited Heteroepitaxially on GaAs(100) using Partially Ionized Beam Deposition"-Sept. 1997 (Co-advised with Dr. S. Murarka)
     Karen & Lester Gerhardt Award for best thesis
     Present employment: IBM

Matt Nielsen- "Pulsed DC Magnetron Sputtering of Insulating Films"- Sept. 1998 (with E. Rymaszewski)
     Karen & Lester Gerhardt Award for best thesis
     Present employment: GE

Y.-P. Zhao- "Instabilities in Growth/Etch Fronts"- Sept. 1999 (with G.-C. Wang)
     H. B. Huntington Award for outstanding graduate work
     Materials Research Society Silver Metal Award (1998)
American Vacuum Society Graduate Research Award (1999)
 Present employment: University of Georgia (faculty)

Mark Delarosa- "Interface analysis of diffusion barriers"- June 2000
     Present employment: Intel

Jin Kim- "Deposition and characterization of dielectric films prepared by pulsed magnetron sputtering technique"--December, 2000
  Present employment: TI

Jeff  Fortin-“Deposition and characterization of Parylene films”—August 2001
  Recipient of the 2002 Karen and Lester Gerhardt Best Thesis Award
  Present employment: GE

Anu Mallikarjunan-“Electrical stability of metal/low dielectric constant materials systems”—June 2002
  2002 Materails Research Society Graduate Student Silver Award
  Present employment: IBM

Jason Drotar-“Temporal evolution of surface structure and morphology in thin film growth and etching processes”, August 2002.
  2001 American Vacuum Society Graduate Student Award
  2002 H.B. Huntington Award for Outstanding Graduate Work
  Present empolyment: Naval Research Lab

Don Windover-“Real-time measurements of film growth using fixed angle X-ray reflectometry and diffraction techniques”, December 2002.

2003 Karen & Lester Gerhardt Award for best thesis
Present empolyment: National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST)

Ed Barnat-“Pulse biasing during the growth of thin film by magnetron sputtering”, August 2002.

2002 H.B. Huntington Award for Outstanding Graduate Work
Present employment: Sandia Laboratory

Jay Senkevich-“Atomic and molecular layer activation of dielectric surfaces”, July 2002.
Present employment: Blewer Scientific

Tansel Karabacak- “Shadowing and physical self-assembly in oblique angle deposition”, August 2003.

2003 H.B. Huntington Award for Outstanding Graduate Work

American Vacuum Society Graduate Research Award (2003)

Present employment: University of Arkansas, Little Rock (faculty)

Christopher Jezewski- “Inductively Coupled Hydrogen Plasma-Assisted Copper Atomic Layer Deposition on Metallic and Dielectric Surfaces”, May 2004

Present employment: Intel Corporation

Hou-Tong Chen -“Development of an apertureless THz scanning near-field microscope”, December 2004 (with Dr. R. Kersting).

Present employment: Los Alamos National Lab

Dexian Ye –“Shadowing growth by physical vapor deposition”, August 2006

2006 H.B. Huntington Award for Outstanding Graduate Student

American Vacuum Society Thin Film Division Graduate Research Award (2006)

Present employment: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Jasbir Singh Juneja –“CVD Parylene-N as pore sealant for porous low-k dielectrics”, December 2006

Present employment: Novellus Systems

This page was last updated Jan., 2006.

Responses to: Prof. T.-M. Lu