Amidinate complexes of magnesium and first row transition metals: Source compounds for semiconductor films

Magnesium-doped wide band gap semiconductors play a major role in electronic and opto-electronic devices. Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) techniques are widely used to dope magnesium into semiconductor films. Cyclopentadienyl based precursors are almost universally used to dope semiconductor films by MOCVD. Low vapor pressures of these compounds and the presence of direct metal-carbon bonds lead to uneven doping levels and carbon incorporation into the semiconductor matrix. Furthermore, there is a growing interest in new magnetic group 13–15 semiconductors as new materials, which combine the properties of both 13–15 semiconductors and ferromagnetic compounds. The low solubility of magnetic elements in group 13–15 semiconductors is the major obstacle in the preparation of these magnetic semiconductors. This problem could be overcome by using MOCVD methods.; This work is concerned with the development of new, improved magnesium source compounds and volatile first row transition metal compounds for use in MOCVD. The new source compounds are based on amidinato ligands. Highly volatile magnesium and first row transition metal amidinato complexes have been synthesized and completely characterized. All these compounds possess all-nitrogen coordination spheres around the metal center with minimal element content (preferred metal, C, H, and N).