Study of Atmospheric MOCVD of TiO2 Thin Films by Means of Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulations

This paper presents the Computational Study of the metal-organic (MO) CVD of titanium dioxide (TiO2) films grown using titanium tetraisopropoxide (TTIP) as a precursor and nitrogen its a carrier gas. The TiO2 films are deposited under atmospheric pressure. The effects of the precursor concentration, the substrate temperature, and the hydrolysis reaction on the deposition process are investigated. It is found that hydrolysis of the TTIP decreases the onset temperature of the gas-phase thermal decomposition, and that the deposition rate increases with the precursor concentration and with the decrease of substrate temperature. Concerning the mechanism responsible for the film growth, the model shows that at the lowest precursor concentration, the direct adsorption of the precursor is dominant, while at higher precursor concentrations, the monomer deposition becomes more important.