Influence of the Seed Layer and Electrolyte on the Epitaxial Electrodeposition of Co(0001) for the Fabrication of Single Crystal Interconnects

Abstract

Co electrodeposition was performed onto single crystal Ru(0001) and polycrystalline Ru films to study the influence of such seed layers on the growth of epitaxial Co(0001). The effect of misfit strain on the electrodeposited Co(0001) films was studied using 60 and 10 nm-thick Ru(0001) seed layers, where the misfit strains of the Co layer on the two Ru(0001) seed layers are 7.9% and 9.6%, respectively. Despite a large misfit strain of 7.9%, the planar growth of Co(0001) was achieved up to a thickness of 42 nm before a transition to island growth was observed. Epitaxial Co films electrodeposited onto 10 nm Ru(0001) showed increased roughness when compared with Co electrodeposited onto the 60 nm seed layer. Co electrodeposition onto polycrystalline Ru resulted in a rough, polycrystalline film with faceted growth. Electrochemical experiments and simulations were used to study the influence of [Co2+] and solution pH on the throughput of the electrodeposition process. By increasing [Co2+] from 1 to 20 mM, the deposition rate of Co(0001) increased from 0.23 nm min−1 to 0.88 nm min−1 at an applied current density of −80 μA cm−2.