WIN Seminar - Dr. David Muñoz-Rojas "Atmospheric Pressure Spatial Atomic Layer Deposition (AP-SALD): a new technique allowing the fast and scalable “printing” of functional oxides"

Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) is a technique that is experiencing a boon in the last years due to its unique assets allowing the nanoengineering of surfaces and interfaces. Despite that, broad industrial application of ALD has remained limited by slow deposition rates and vacuum processing. Atmospheric pressure Spatial ALD (AP-SALD) is a recently developed approach to ALD in which precursors are separated in space rather than in time (as is the case for conventional ADL). This approach eliminates the need for purges and vacuum processing thus rendering the technique up to two orders of magnitude faster. The possibility of processing at ambient pressure also makes SALD cheaper and easier to scale up. In my talk I’ll shortly review the historical development of AP-SALD and I will provide a short description of the different engineering approaches to Spatial ALD currently being developed, including the new AP-SALD deposition system recently implemented in the LMGP. I will then illustrate the potential of AP-SALD with some examples of application in the deposition of active components for new generation photovoltaic cells. Finally, I will give some examples of the application of our new AP-SALD system in current research involving Ag nanowire networks and other transparent conductive materials.