A novel process to improve the surface roughness of RuO2 film deposited by metallorganic chemical vapor deposition

We demonstrate that the surface roughness of metallorganic chemical vapor deposited RuO2 is significantly decreased by plasma treatment before the deposition of the film. The root mean square (rms) value of the surface roughness is decreased from similar to 25 to 3 nm by applying O-2 plasma for 5 min prior to the deposition of an similar to 200 nm thick layer of RuO2. Other plasma gases such as H-2 and Ar also decrease the rms value of the surface roughness, but are not as effective as O-2 plasma. The decrease of surface roughness is attributed to the enhancement of nucleation density at the initial stages of film growth. (C) 1998 The Electrochemical Society. S1099-0062(98)06-055-6. All rights reserved.