Ruthenium complexes as precursors for chemical vapor-deposition (CVD)

Ruthenium and its compounds are often used as thin films and can be deposited by chemical vapor deposition. The quality of the films strongly depends on the inorganic precursors, their evaporation behaviour and thermochemistry. This is an area where different aspects of inorganic chemistry and chemical engineering must fit together to provide good thin films. It was noticed that providing firsthand information in one place especially for a learner of this area of research, and collection of reports on different types of ruthenium complexes as CVD precursors would be timely. Thus, in this review a bird's eye view of ruthenium complexes suitable for CVD technology, together with the presentation of different precursors, their synthesis, evaporation, decomposition and film formation is presented. A brief summary of the CVD technique is also presented with future-design, synthesis and usefulness of CVD precursors.