Selective Deposition of Platinum by Atomic Layer Deposition Using

Publication Date (Web): March 7, 2019. Copyright © 2019 American Chemical Society. Cite this:J. Phys. Chem. C XXXX, XXX, XXX-XXX ...
7 downloads 0 Views 7MB Size
Subscriber access provided by ECU Libraries

C: Surfaces, Interfaces, Porous Materials, and Catalysis

Selective Deposition of Platinum by Atomic Layer Deposition Using Terraced Oxide Surfaces Noga Kornblum, Alex Katsman, and Boaz Pokroy J. Phys. Chem. C, Just Accepted Manuscript • DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.8b10782 • Publication Date (Web): 07 Mar 2019 Downloaded from http://pubs.acs.org on March 9, 2019

Just Accepted “Just Accepted” manuscripts have been peer-reviewed and accepted for publication. They are posted online prior to technical editing, formatting for publication and author proofing. The American Chemical Society provides “Just Accepted” as a service to the research community to expedite the dissemination of scientific material as soon as possible after acceptance. “Just Accepted” manuscripts appear in full in PDF format accompanied by an HTML abstract. “Just Accepted” manuscripts have been fully peer reviewed, but should not be considered the official version of record. They are citable by the Digital Object Identifier (DOI®). “Just Accepted” is an optional service offered to authors. Therefore, the “Just Accepted” Web site may not include all articles that will be published in the journal. After a manuscript is technically edited and formatted, it will be removed from the “Just Accepted” Web site and published as an ASAP article. Note that technical editing may introduce minor changes to the manuscript text and/or graphics which could affect content, and all legal disclaimers and ethical guidelines that apply to the journal pertain. ACS cannot be held responsible for errors or consequences arising from the use of information contained in these “Just Accepted” manuscripts.

is published by the American Chemical Society. 1155 Sixteenth Street N.W., Washington, DC 20036 Published by American Chemical Society. Copyright © American Chemical Society. However, no copyright claim is made to original U.S. Government works, or works produced by employees of any Commonwealth realm Crown government in the course of their duties.

Page 1 of 27 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60

The Journal of Physical Chemistry

Selective deposition of platinum by atomic layer deposition on terraced of sapphire 49x44mm (300 x 300 DPI)

ACS Paragon Plus Environment

The Journal of Physical Chemistry 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60

Selective Deposition of Platinum by Atomic Layer Deposition Using Terraced Oxide Surfaces Noga Kornblum, Alex Katsman, Boaz Pokroy* Department of Materials Science and Engineering, # $

%&

Institute of Technology, 32000 Haifa, Israel

Abstract Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is widely used in science and technology, particularly in microelectronics, because it allows well-controlled production of highly conformal thin films. Technoindustrial advancements in microelectronics require more accurate guidance of deposition, as features in electronic devices keep shrinking. Therefore, improved lithographic capabilities are needed, and bottom-up, self-aligned methods of lithography have attracted much attention. In this context, step decoration has been extensively explored for some decades, but ALD was seldom, if ever, considered. Gaining better fundamental understanding of such processes is an important milestone toward their practical implementation. Here, using MeCpPtMe3 and O3 on terraced -Al2O3 (sapphire) miscut surfaces, we demonstrate selective deposition of platinum particles deposited by ALD. An observed interconnection between the selectivity and the miscut angle of the surface was discussed and modelled. These results shed light on the role of low-coordination surface-sites on terraced surfaces in the guidance of deposition performed by ALD.

Introduction Self-formed organized structures provide one of the most fascinating playgrounds in nature. Terraced surfaces with distinct long-ranging nanopatterns are an example of such organized structures. Atoms at a material’s surface have a lower coordination number than those in the bulk, and their energy per unit area is therefore higher than that of bulk atoms. Surface defects, 1 ACS Paragon Plus Environment

Page 2 of 27

Page 3 of 27 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60

The Journal of Physical Chemistry

such as step edges, are even more energetic and are thus more reactive when exposed to certain atoms or molecules.1 Over the last few decades this attribute has been drawing attention to these self-formed periodic templates for the formation of periodic nanoscaled zero-dimensional (0D) and one-dimensional (1D) features.2 Such surfaces have been widely studied as non-lithographic means to template various materials, achieved to date almost exclusively by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) or molecular beam epitaxy (MBE).3–7 Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is a thin-film deposition method based on self-limiting surface reactions of the various co-reactants. Combined with separation between these reactions, the self-limiting nature of ALD allows deposition of highly conformal uniform thin films of controlled thickness and density. These features have positioned ALD as a favorable deposition technique where high precision and high conformality on complicated surface topographies are required, such as in 3D transistors (e.g. FinFETs).8 Nevertheless, these characteristics of the ALD films are not typical for all material systems; noble metals, for example, are known to exhibit nucleation difficulties when deposited on oxide surfaces,9 resulting in Volmer-Weber growth type.10 This is manifested in nucleation delay, where the growth rate is lower and film thickness increases in a manner that is non-linear with the initial cycles of the process.11 While CVD and MBE have been successfully producing step-decorated surfaces,3–7 ALD has not yet been thoroughly studied in this context, although it potentially offers a faster, cheaper and highly controllable way to deposit various materials. To the best of our knowledge, the only works published in this field were based on the use of highly ordered pyrolytic (HOPG) as the terraced surface.12–14 HOPG is an excellent substrate for such a purpose, owing to its high contrast in reactivity between the inert terraces oriented in the basal plane direction and the step edges with their dangling bonds. An interesting question arises, however, when the surfaceenergy contrast between the terraces and the step edges is relatively low. An example of such surfaces can be found in -Al2O3 (sapphire), a material that presents a low-to-negligible energetic contrast between facets that might well be thermodynamically stable. Achievement of selective ALD free of surface modifications upon oxide surfaces could be attractive for catalytic15,16, electronic17,18 and plasmonic19–21 devices. This, is in place of using either the various chemical modifications currently offered by conventional lithography or the alternative SAMs-based 2 ACS Paragon Plus Environment

The Journal of Physical Chemistry 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60

methods offered by current studies22 in the field of area-selective ALD (AS-ALD). An example for such work was recently published by de Melo et al., where Cu and Cu2O were selectively deposited on certain areas of ZnO surfaces, by locally modifying the conductivity of the surfaces23. Terraced surfaces also have a great potential in this area, providing guidance for the deposition merely by inducing surface relaxation. Here, we chose platinum and -Al2O3 as a case study for the deposition of noble metals on oxide surfaces. Pt ALD process was designed based on studies involving oxygen sources24–26. Low miscut -Al2O3 substrates were annealed to induce surface relaxation prior to the formation of terraced surfaces rich in low-coordination surface sites (LCSSs). We took advantage of the problems involved in nucleation of platinum on oxide surfaces, to examine the ability of these sites to guide the deposited material toward step edges. Selective deposition of platinum was demonstrated on surfaces oriented in the A-plane (1 1 C( 0) direction, and the surface properties needed for such selectivity were examined. We suggest that the selective nature of the deposition can be explained in terms of a link between the substrates' miscut angles and the deposition at step edges.

EXPERIMENTAL METHODS Materials and Preparation. E/

2O3

single crystals toward C (0 0 0 1) and A (1 1 C( 0) [MTI

Corporation, USA and Shinkosha, Japan, both >99.99%] were sonicated in a series of acetone, isopropyl alcohol (IPA), methanol (all AR grade), each for for 10 min. The substrates were then blow-dried with N2 and subsequently annealed in air at 1450 °C in a closed alumina crucible for different durations (Nabertherm HTC furnace). The annealing profile was as follows: ramping up for 5 h to a set temperature of 1450 °C, at which the samples were kept for 5 h longer. The oven was then cooled down naturally to room temperature. Platinum deposition was carried out with Picosun R200 Advanced ALD. The substrates were loaded into the preheated (200°C) chamber for 10 min prior to deposition and were then exposed to O3 to clean the surface [medical O2 (99.5%) carried by N2 into an O3 generator model AC-2000 (IN USA) at 70% power]. Platinum was deposited using MeCpPtMe3 and O3. The

3 ACS Paragon Plus Environment

Page 4 of 27

Page 5 of 27 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60

The Journal of Physical Chemistry

MeCpPtMe3 bubbler was kept at 38 °C and its neck at 70 °C. Cycles consisted of 5-s MeCpPtMe3 pulse, 7-s purge, 8-s O3 pulse, and 10-s purge. Characterization. The morphology of the surfaces before and after platinum deposition was examined by tapping-mode atomic-force microscopy (TM-AFM 3D, Asylum Research), using HQ:NSC18/Al BS (MikroMasch) tips. Measurements obtained by atomic-force microscopy (AFM) were also used to fix the direction of terraces with the orientation of the samples’ edges. These, once established, were used to position samples in the X-ray diffractometer for pole-figure (PF) measurements. Particle coverage was analyzed and miscut angles were estimated using Igor Pro software version 6.3.7.2. Phase analysis (Figure S1) and PF measurements were obtained with a Rigaku SmartLab X-ray diffractometer (XRD). PF measurements were used to identify the “step lines” of the step ledges. The step lines are defined by lˆ

nˆ fˆ , where nˆ is the normal to A-plane and fˆ is normal

to the ledge facet (Figure 1.A). Surfaces of the samples were aligned to the (1 1 C( 0) direction (2 = 37.7760°)27, and PF scans for (0 1 C 2) (2 = 25.5779°)27 and (1 1 C( 3) (2 = 43.3550°)27 were obtained using a Al K 1 source. The beam and the detector were fixed to the selected Bragg angle, and samples were tilted +U- from +90° to C=)° and rotated 360°+W- in steps of 3° (Figure 1.B). Using 3D Explore version 2.5 software, we plotted intensity as a function of U and W where the middle of the plot represents the normal to the sample surface [1 1 C( 0] and the circumference represents a tilt of 90° from this normal. For each U a full circle represents the rotation of the sample through 360°.

4 ACS Paragon Plus Environment

The Journal of Physical Chemistry 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60

ACS Paragon Plus Environment

Page 6 of 27

Page 7 of 27 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60

The Journal of Physical Chemistry

ACS Paragon Plus Environment

The Journal of Physical Chemistry 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60

ACS Paragon Plus Environment

Page 8 of 27

Page 9 of 27 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60

The Journal of Physical Chemistry

ACS Paragon Plus Environment

The Journal of Physical Chemistry 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60

ACS Paragon Plus Environment

Page 10 of 27

Page 11 of 27 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60

The Journal of Physical Chemistry

Given the favorable deposition sites located in step edges it would seem reasonable to expect a preference for concave kinks. This expectation, however, is not entirely met, since (as can be seen in Figure 5), S-oriented ledges (red arrows) are occupied by platinum particles in addition to the concave kinks (black arrows).This non-exclusive deposition pattern is further emphasized in Figure 5A by the appearance of continuous platinum lines along the entire Soriented ledges (see the line profiles shown in Figure 6). Nevertheless, we can see (Figure 5B and C) that concave kinks are occupied by relatively larger particles (black arrows), suggesting a higher rate of particle growth in these kinks. This finding might be explained by surface energy considerations, as S-planes are the highest in energy after A-planes, and thus the S-oriented ledge can compete with the concave kinks for adsorption of Pt atoms. On the other hand, since the energy differences between thermodynamically stable facets of -Al2O3 is low to negligible28, it is not clear whether this is the reason for the favorable deposition at the S-planes ledges. Based on such surface energy considerations, guided deposition of carbon nanotubes by CVD has indeed been demonstrated6. The results of our experiments indicated a trend linking selectivity and the miscut angle of the surface upon which the deposition is performed. Assuming that the ledges are the preferred places for Pt-particle nucleation, we further attribute the selectivity increase to an increase in the step-edge density with the miscut angle. Therefore, the selectivity achieved when platinum is deposited on these surfaces depends on the probabilities of the various molecules or atoms to encounter step edges. Generally, a terraced surface contains two possible positions for Pt particle nucleation: a ledge and a terrace. Considering only successful nucleation events, the total probability to deposit on a ledge or on a terrace can be equated to one, therefore: S L PL

ST PT

1

(1)

where SL and ST are the effective-area fractions of the ledges and terraces, and PL and PT are the probabilities of deposition on a ledge and on a terrace, respectively. During the initial stages of the ALD process, Pt particles are formed on active surface sites on the -Al2O3 surface. A work recently published by Dendooven et al.29 indicates a high Pt surface mobility during Pt atomic layer deposition performed by MeCpPtMe3 and O2 on native SiO2 surface. This surface mobility is manifested by coarsening of the particles deposited during 10 ACS Paragon Plus Environment

The Journal of Physical Chemistry 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60

Page 12 of 27

the process. However, the phenomenon discussed in the paper deals with higher Pt loadings than those discussed in our paper. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that the numbers of the nucleated particles on the terraces, NT

kST PT , and on the ledges, N L

kS L PL (where k is a

proportionality coefficient), reach certain saturation values at the initial deposition stage, and then do not change during the subsequent process (the growth stage), until a late coarsening stage (which was not observed and considered in this work). In other words, at the initial deposition stages (Pt-particle nucleation), the molecular gaseous diffusion is expected to be dominant, while surface diffusion can matter at later stages of growth and coarsening. These particles then grow by means of different diffusion ways: molecular surface diffusion, molecular gaseous diffusion and Pt atomic diffusion. The growth can be linear, parabolic or intermediate with time, depending on the driving force for diffusion, and it can be different for terraces and ledges. We assume, for simplicity, that Pt particles grow linearly with time, and, in general, the rates of growth on terraces ( vT ) and on ledges ( vL ) are different. Then, after a time t, the total volumes of Pt particles on the terraces and on the ledges will be, respectively,

VT

3

f NT vT t and VL

3

f N L vL t , where f is a geometric factor.

The deposition selectivity for the ledges can be defined as a deviation of the corresponding particle volumes ratio from the ledge/terrace area ratio: VL VT where q

SL ST

vL3 S L PL 1 ST PT vT3

qPL PT

1 tan

(2)

vL3 / vT3 is a diffusion amplification factor. It should be noted that q can be much larger

than unity, if the diffusion toward the ledge is driven by a substantial chemical potential gradient. The area ratio can be roughly estimated as S L / ST height, D is the average terrace width, and

H /D

tan

, where H is the average step

is the miscut angle of the crystal surface.

Our experimental results showed appreciable selectivity toward the ledges on surfaces with miscut angles equal to or greater than 0.3°. With increasing miscut angle the annealed surfaces exhibited an increase in step bunching. While a miscut close to 0° exhibited single steps corresponding to the {1 1 C( 0} d-spacing27 (0.2379 nm), higher miscuts seem to promote bunching (Figure S4), resulting in mixtures of multi-steps and single steps in the surfaces. Since 11 ACS Paragon Plus Environment

Page 13 of 27 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60

The Journal of Physical Chemistry

the average ledge height increases with the bunching process, a structural change in the ledges can be assumed. This may result in a variation of the ledge reactivity with increasing miscut angle. At a certain intermediate angle,

in

, the probability ratio can obey the equality: qPL PT

in

1 Q

cot

(3)

in

and then the selectivity equals 1. For miscut angles larger than

in

, the selectivity is larger than

1: in

where

PL

'

Q tan

f ( ) PL

in

f ( )Q tan

f ( ) '( )

f( )

tan tan

1

(4)

in

and f ( ) is the correction function reflecting the dependence

on the miscut angle for >

in.

Above a miscut angle of ~0.4 , no Pt particles were found on terraces. This might be explained by the presence of a near-ledge particle-free zone with an area of

S ( ) , which

increases with the miscut angle. It has to be noted, that even in the case of high nucleation probability on the ledges, some particles would be expected to nucleate also on terraces. However, this is not the case at miscut angles >0.3°, when the particles are observed only on the ledges. This implies that, in addition to a favorable nucleation on the ledges, there should be also diffusion from the terraces to the ledges driven by chemical potential differences of Pt atoms between terraces and ledges. If we assume that S ( ) ~ S L , eq. (2) could be modified as follows: VL VT where the

c

SL ST

S L qPL ST S ( ) PT

SL ST

PL 1 tan

q / tan

c

PT

1 tan

(5)

corresponds to the minimum miscut angle that provides full selectivity (number of

particles on terraces is zero). Our findings showed a noticeable preference toward the ledges for all examined miscut angles, where

> 0.068°. This can be seen quantitatively, when viewing the ratio between the

area percentage occupied by particles on the terraces ( T) and on the ledges ( L); this ratio ( = T\ L )

decreases with increasing miscut angle and drops to zero for 12 ACS Paragon Plus Environment

` 0.4°.

The Journal of Physical Chemistry 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60

If we compare the experimental results of the ratio

Page 14 of 27

to the calculated values of the selectivity

(equations (2) and (5), Figure 7), we can conclude that the described model works rather well with the constant value qPL / PT 1 Q 350 . The corrected eq. (5), which takes into account the diffusional formation of particle-free zones, specifies the experimentally observed critical angle above which all Pt particles are deposited only on the ledges. The specified fitted value of Q implies rather high values of the effective probabilities ratio qPL / PT

Q 1 , which can be

explained by the higher probability of particle nucleation on the ledges than on the terraces, PL

PT , as well as by the higher diffusional growth rate of the ledge-located particles,

q

vL3 / vT3 >>1. Additional experiments will be needed to elucidate which of the two factors has

the stronger effect.

Figure 7. Comparison of the ratio obtained between the area percentages of particles occupying the terraces and the ledges , with calculated values of reciprocal selectivity, 1/ , with Q=350, f( )=1. The solid line corresponds to eq. (5), with c=0.4 ; the dotted line corresponds to eq. (2).

When discussing surface diffusion in ALD, two different processes should be considered: diffusion at the molecular level (diffusion of reactants) and diffusion at the atomic level (migration of Pt atoms to and from platinum particles formed on terraces and ledges). 13 ACS Paragon Plus Environment

Page 15 of 27 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60

The Journal of Physical Chemistry

During an ALD process the reactants are first adsorbed to a surface via physisorption from the gaseous phase, and then diffuse over the surface until they reach highly-reactive surface sites, where they become chemisorbed to form strong chemical bonds with the surface30. The involvement

of surface diffusion in distribution of the deposited material can also be affected by the density of step edges, since the diffusion length (L) that is needed to reach a step edge decreases with the increase in miscut angle. The chemical potentials of the reactants’ molecules and Pt atoms on the ledges are expected to be substantially smaller than those on the terraces to provide a significant driving force for molecular and atomic diffusion towards the ledges. Preferential molecular diffusion to the ledges may play a decisive role in the selectivity effect (q>>1), since in ALD the reactants are guided to the reactive surface sites mainly by molecular diffusion, and their direct chemisorption occurs right to the ledges from the start and during the whole deposition process. Modeling of these phenomena at atomic and molecular level using quantum chemistry calculations is beyond the scope of this work and might be the focus of a further follow-up study. Our main finding raises a question about the possible outcomes of Pt deposition on terraced C-oriented surfaces miscut at higher angles; while low-miscut C-oriented sapphire surfaces ( =0.003°±0.0004°) exhibit no selectivity (Figure 2), further experiments looking into higher miscut angles might show a similar effect also for C-oriented surfaces.

CONCLUSIONS We have demonstrated selective deposition of platinum particles deposited by ALD on A (1 1 C( 0) -Al2O3 terraced surfaces. Although all the examined terraced surfaces are known to have step edges and therefore low-coordination surface sites, not all surfaces exhibited noticeable selectivity. The ability of our terraced surfaces to guide the deposition exclusively onto the ledges was linked to a certain threshold in the miscut angle, estimated to be in the range of )0'C)0?°. Below this threshold angle, particles were variously distributed between ledges and terraces. The particles were found to be guided to ledges oriented along S {0 1 C 1}, and on these ledges the particles located in concave kinks seemed to be larger, implying their higher growth rates in the concave kinks. Our explanation of the variance in selectivity suggests that (i) the probability of particle nucleation depends on low-coordination-site density, which is much higher 14 ACS Paragon Plus Environment

The Journal of Physical Chemistry 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60

on ledges than on terraces; (ii) the diffusional growth rate of particles on the ledges is much higher than that on the terraces, owing to the lower chemical potential of the reactant molecules and Pt atoms on the ledges than on the terraces. The model that we developed based on these assumptions fits quite well with our experimental results and it allowed to estimate the effective ratio of nucleation probabilities on ledges and terraces. Thus, while this work raises additional questions, it clearly provides a route towards the selective deposition of metals on easily induced terraced oxide surfaces.

SUPPORTING INFORMATION Supporting Information Available: X-ray diffractogram of Pt deposited film, A scheme of A- and C-planes in sapphire, AFM measurements for the control samples, line profiles of terraced surface showing step evolution with miscut angle. This material is available free of charge via the Internet at http://pubs.acs.org.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This work was supported by the Israel Ministry of Science, Technology and Space (Grant no. 2024774).

AUTHOR INFORMATION Corresponding author: Boaz Pokroy, [email protected]

NOTES The authors declare no competing financial interests.

15 ACS Paragon Plus Environment

Page 16 of 27

Page 17 of 27 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60

The Journal of Physical Chemistry

REFERENCES (1)

Ferrer, S.; Rojo, J. M.; Salmerón, M.; Somorjai, G. A. The Role of Surface Irregularities (Steps, Kinks) and Point Defects on the Chemical Reactivity of Solid Surfaces. Philos. Mag. A 1982, 45, 261–269.

(2)

Shchukin, V.; Ledentsov, N. N.; Bimberg, D. Epitaxy of Nanostructures; Springer Science & Business Media, 2013.

(3)

Himpsel, F. J.; Mo, Y. W.; Jung, T.; Ortega, J. E.; Mankey, G. J.; Willis, R. F. Quantum Well and Quantum Wire States at Metal Surfaces. Superlattices Microstruct. 1994, 15, 237.

(4)

Cheng, R.; Guslienko, K. Y.; Fradin, F. Y.; Pearson, J. E.; Ding, H. F.; Li, D.; Bader, S. D. StepDecorated Ferromagnetic Fe Nanostripes on Pt(997). Phys. Rev. B 2005, 72, 14409.

(5)

Tsivion, D.; Schvartzman, M.; Popovitz-Biro, R.; Joselevich, E. Guided Growth of Horizontal ZnO Nanowires with Controlled Orientations on Flat and Faceted Sapphire Surfaces. ACS Nano 2012, 6, 6433–6445.

(6)

Ismach, A.; Kantorovich, D.; Joselevich, E. Carbon Nanotube 3

$

Nh Highly

Oriented Growth by Faceted Nanosteps. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2005, 127, 11554–11555. (7)

Reut, G.; Oksenberg, E.; Popovitz-Biro, R.; Rechav, K.; Joselevich, E. Guided Growth of Horizontal P-Type ZnTe Nanowires. J. Phys. Chem. C 2016, 120, 17087–17100.

(8)

Johnson, R. W.; Hultqvist, A.; Bent, S. F. A Brief Review of Atomic Layer Deposition: From Fundamentals to Applications. Mater. Today 2014, 17, 236–246.

(9)

Hämäläinen, J.; Ritala, M.; Leskelä, M. Atomic Layer Deposition of Noble Metals and Their Oxides. Chem. Mater. 2014, 26, 786–801.

(10)

George, S. M. Atomic Layer Deposition: An Overview. Chem. Rev. 2010, 110, 111–131.

(11)

Geyer, S. M.; Methaapanon, R.; Johnson, R.; Brennan, S.; Toney, M. F.; Clemens, B.; Bent, S. Structural Evolution of Platinum Thin Films Grown by Atomic Layer Deposition. J. Appl. Phys. 2014, 116, 64905. 16 ACS Paragon Plus Environment

The Journal of Physical Chemistry 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60

(12)

Xuan, Y.; Wu, Y. Q.; Shen, T.; Qi, M.; Capano, M. A.; Cooper, J. A.; Ye, P. D. Atomic-LayerDeposited Nanostructures for Graphene-Based Nanoelectronics. Appl. Phys. Lett. 2008, 92, 13101.

(13)

Lee, H.-B.-R.; Baeck, S. H.; Jaramillo, T. F.; Bent, S. F. Growth of Pt Nanowires by Atomic Layer Deposition on Highly Ordered Pyrolytic Graphite. Nano Lett. 2013, 13, 457–463.

(14)

Lee, H.; Lee, H.-B.-R.; Kwon, S.; Salmeron, M.; Park, J. Y. Internal and External Atomic Steps in Graphite Exhibit Dramatically Different Physical and Chemical Properties. ACS Nano 2015, 9, 3814–3819.

(15)

Christensen, S. T.; Elam, J. W.; Rabuffetti, F. A.; Ma, Q.; Weigand, S. J.; Lee, B.; Seifert, S.; Stair, P. C.; Poeppelmeier, K. R.; Hersam, M. C.; et al. Controlled Growth of Platinum Nanoparticles on Strontium Titanate Nanocubes by Atomic Layer Deposition. Small 2009, 5, 750–757.

(16)

Christensen, S. T.; Feng, H.; Libera, J. L.; Guo, N.; Miller, J. T.; Stair, P. C.; Elam, J. W. Supported L C

Bimetallic Nanoparticle Catalysts Prepared by Atomic Layer Deposition.

Nano Lett. 2010, 10, 3047–3051. (17)

Becker, C.; Wandelt, K. Two-Dimensional Templates in Chemistry III; Broekmann, P., Dötz, K. H., Schalley, C. A., Eds.; Springer: Berlin/Heildelberg, 2009, 2009; Vol. 287.

(18)

Mikhelashvili, V.; Padmanabhan, R.; Meyler, B.; Yofis, S.; Atiya, G.; Cohen-Hyams, Z.; Weindling, S.; Ankonina, G.; Salzman, J.; Kaplan, W. D.; et al. Optically Sensitive Devices Based on Pt Nano Particles Fabricated by Atomic Layer Deposition and Embedded in a Dielectric Stack. J. Appl. Phys. 2015, 118, 134504.

(19)

Standridge, S. D.; Schatz, G. C.; Hupp, J. T. Toward Plasmonic Solar Cells: Protection of Silver Nanoparticles via Atomic Layer Deposition of TiO2. Langmuir 2009, 25, 2596–2600.

(20)

Mikhelashvili, V.; Cristea, D.; Meyler, B.; Yofis, S.; Shneider, Y.; Atiya, G.; Cohen-Hyams, T.; Kauffmann, Y.; Kaplan, W. D.; Eisenstein, G. Highly Sensitive Optically Controlled Tunable Capacitor and Photodetector Based on a Metal-Insulator-Semiconductor on Silicon-on17 ACS Paragon Plus Environment

Page 18 of 27

Page 19 of 27 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60

The Journal of Physical Chemistry

Insulator Substrates. J. Appl. Phys. 2015, 117, 44503. (21)

Thomann, I.; Pinaud, B. A.; Chen, Z.; Clemens, B. M.; Jaramillo, T. F.; Brongersma, M. L. Plasmon Enhanced Solar-to-Fuel Energy Conversion. Nano Lett. 2011, 11, 3440–3446.

(22)

Lee, H.-B.-R.; Bent, S. F. Nanopatterning by Area-Selective Atomic Layer Deposition. In Atomic Layer Deposition of Nanostructured Materials; Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA: Weinheim, Germany, 2012; pp 193–225.

(23)

de Melo, C.; Jullien, M.; Ghanbaja, J.; Montaigne, F.; Pierson, J.-F.; Soldera, F.; Rigoni, F.; Almqvist, N.; Vomiero, A.; Mücklich, F.; et al. Local Structure and Point-Defect-Dependent Area-Selective Atomic Layer Deposition Approach for Facile Synthesis of P-Cu2O/n-ZnO Segmented Nanojunctions. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2018, 10, 37671–37678.

(24)

Aaltonen, T.; Ritala, M.; Sajavaara, T.; Keinonen, J.; Leskelä, M. Atomic Layer Deposition of Platinum Thin Films. Chem. Mater. 2003, 15, 1924–1928.

(25)

Dendooven, J.; Ramachandran, R. K.; Devloo-Casier, K.; Rampelberg, G.; Filez, M.; Poelman, H.; Marin, G. B.; Fonda, E.; Detavernier, C. Low-Temperature Atomic Layer Deposition of Platinum Using (Methylcyclopentadienyl)trimethylplatinum and Ozone. J. Phys. Chem. C 2013, 117, 20557–20561.

(26)

Baker, L.; Cavanagh, A. S.; Seghete, D.; George, S. M.; Mackus, A. J. M.; Kessels, W. M. M.; Liu, Z. Y.; Wagner, F. T. Nucleation and Growth of Pt Atomic Layer Deposition on Al2O3 Substrates Using (Methylcyclopentadienyl)-Trimethyl Platinum and O2 Plasma. J. Appl. Phys. 2011, 109, 84333.

(27)

JCPDS

-481 1 .

(28)

Choi*, J.-H.; Kim*, D.-Y.; Hockey, B. J.; Wiederhorn*, S. M.; Handwerker, C. A.; Blendell, J. E.; Carter, W. C.; Roosen, A. R. Equilibrium Shape of Internal Cavities in Sapphire. J. Am. Ceram. Soc. 1997, 80, 62–68.

(29)

Dendooven, J.; Ramachandran, R. K.; Solano, E.; Kurttepeli, M.; Geerts, L.; Heremans, G.; Rongé, J.; Minjauw, M. M.; Dobbelaere, T.; Devloo-Casier, K.; et al. Independent Tuning of 18 ACS Paragon Plus Environment

The Journal of Physical Chemistry 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60

ACS Paragon Plus Environment

Page 20 of 27

Page 21 of 27 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60

The Journal of Physical Chemistry

677x380mm (300 x 300 DPI)

ACS Paragon Plus Environment

The Journal of Physical Chemistry 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60

104x53mm (300 x 300 DPI)

ACS Paragon Plus Environment

Page 22 of 27

Page 23 of 27 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60

The Journal of Physical Chemistry

337x146mm (300 x 300 DPI)

ACS Paragon Plus Environment

The Journal of Physical Chemistry 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60

180x134mm (300 x 300 DPI)

ACS Paragon Plus Environment

Page 24 of 27

Page 25 of 27 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60

The Journal of Physical Chemistry

180x134mm (300 x 300 DPI)

ACS Paragon Plus Environment

The Journal of Physical Chemistry 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60

677x380mm (300 x 300 DPI)

ACS Paragon Plus Environment

Page 26 of 27

Page 27 of 27 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60

The Journal of Physical Chemistry

677x380mm (300 x 300 DPI)

ACS Paragon Plus Environment