Applications of Vapor Deposition in Microelectronics and Dye-sensitized Solar Cells

Over the past decades, vapor deposition of thin films has gained wide interest in both industry and academia, and a variety of its applications have been demonstrated. As one of the most promising vapor deposition techniques, atomic layer deposition (ALD) and its applications in microelectronics and dye-sensitized solar cells are extensively investigated in this dissertation. ALD has many distinct features including low temperature processing, self-limiting growth, and precise control of film composition and thickness. Thus, ALD is considered to be suitable for conformal coating of 3D nanostructures, such as nanoporous structures, high aspect-ratio trench or hole structures, and so forth. Additionally, pulsed chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and its applications in microelectronics are explored in this dissertation.