Secondary ion mass spectrometric investigation on ruthenium oxide systems: A comparison between poly- and nanocrystalline deposits

The influence of different RuO crystallite sizes was investigated by secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) on the oxide deposited on various support materials (Ni, Ti, AlO, oxidized Si(100)). In order to examine the effect of an oxidic environment on the film structure, RuO 20%-TiO 80% at. mixed oxide was deposited on Ti. The polycrystalline coatings were prepared by heating the Ru (and Ti)-containing solution dropped on the supports. RuO nanocrystalline coatings were grown by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) from Ru(COD)(?-allyl). The identification of mixed oxide clusters showed the higher reactivity of Ni and AlO over the other substrates. Diffusion and migration characteristics were observed to be influenced by the nature of the support. The results are complementary to those of a previous SIMS investigation. (C) 2000 John Wiley and Sons, Ltd.