Kinetic study of 222 nm excimer lamp induced decomposition of palladium-acetate films

Wavelength selectivity, high intensity, long lifetime and low maintenance cost make excimer lamps a popular UV source for large area processing. Photo-induced metal seeding followed by electroless plating is one area where the use of these efficient light sources can contribute to the development of new techniques aimed at reducing the processing temperature. Although, the use of palladium-acetate to produce Pd seed layers has already been studied with various energy sources, including excimer lasers and lamps, the details of the photochemical mechanisms involved are still largely unexplored. In this paper the kinetics of 222 nm KrCl) excimer lamp initiated palladium-acetate decomposition are presented. The species ejected from the irradiated films were monitored in situ by mass spectrometry at ultra high vacuum. Interpretation of the time evolution of multichannel mass spectrometric data, together with complementary infrared, UV-visible spectrophotometric characterization has led to an understanding of the governing physical and chemical mechanisms which are described here for the first time. q1999 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved