Kinetics of terbium oxide film growth from Tb(dpm)3 vapor

We have studied the kinetics of terbium oxide chemical vapor deposition using the Tb(dpm)(3) complex. At substrate temperatures in the range 465-560A degrees C, films ranging in thickness from 25 to 360 nm have been obtained. At precursor partial pressures below 13 Pa in an argon atmosphere, the films had smooth surfaces with separate islands. Higher precursor pressures led to the formation of dense island films. At deposition temperatures in the range 465-560A degrees C, the process was found to switch from kinetically limited, with an effective activation energy of 190 +/- 15 kJ/mol, to adsorption-limited, with an activation energy of 38 +/- 5 kJ/mol. The order of the reaction with respect to the precursor was determined to be 0.8.