The last 10-15 years have witnessed a resurgence in the application of high pressure X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, mainly through the development of new electron energy analyser designs and the utilization of high-brilliance synchrotron radiation sources. To continue this expansion of the technique, it is crucial that instruments are developed for the home-laboratory, considering that this is where the vast majority of traditional ultra-high vacuum (UHV) X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy is performed. The research presented here introduces a new addition to the field, an instrument capable of performing spectroscopy measurements from UHV to high pressure (25 mbar), achieved using a retractable and modular reaction cell design. The ease of use, stability (of analyser, X-ray source, and gas delivery, etc.), and overall capability of the instrument will be demonstrated.

Hafnium oxide films deposited on silicon wafers from TEMAH and O 2 plasma showed saturation at growth rate per cycle of 1.1Å, which was independent of the plasma conditions. The same film deposited thermally using H 2 O as the oxidant saturated at 0.8Å/cycle. By varying the plasma exposure time the compositional ratio of [O]/[Hf], as calculated from RBS measurements, changed from 2.0 to 2.13. The carbon content in plasma HfO 2 films was < 2% compared to 8% in thermal HfO 2 films.Titanium nitride films deposited on silicon wafers from TiCl 4 and N 2 / H 2 plasma showed saturation at 0.33Å/cycle, which was independent of plasma conditions and a resistivity of <170µΩ cm at 350°C deposition temperature. The stoichiometry of the films can be changed from being slightly nitrogen rich to titanium rich by varying the N:H ratios in the plasma and limiting the amount of nitrogen available for the reaction. The chlorine impurity in TiN varied according to plasma exposure time (2.6% to 1.2%) and N 2 :H 2 gas ratio in the plasma, with a corresponding change in resistivity (200µΩ -150µΩ).

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