Field-enhanced chemical vapor deposition: new perspectives for thin film growth

Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is a versatile technique for producing thin films and coatings of functional materials with diverse mechanical, electrochemical, electrical, tribological, and optical properties. The CVD process is governed by various experimental parameters including precursor chemistry, feed rate, growth temperature, pressure, and carrier or reactive gases. The growth kinetics depends on precursor decomposition that can be influenced by plasma-chemical or photo-dissociation processes to supplement thermal energy. More recently, the application of electric or magnetic fields during the CVD process has impacted the film growth beyond the conventional parametric space. This review highlights the influence of external field effects (plasma, photo-radiation, electric field, and magnetic field) on key steps of thin film processing, such as nucleation, grain growth, texture, density, phase formation, anisotropy, and kinetic stabilization. The emphasis is on recent technical, material, and phenomenological innovations in the CVD technique, with applied fields as extrinsic processing parameters offering new insights into future directions in the research and development of high-fidelity functional films and coatings.