Thin film deposition by CVD techniques plays an important role in the development of both decorative and functional coatings, important for their technological implications. Commonly, multi-component materials are prepared from a mixture of precursors; however the efficiency of such processes is hampered by the mismatch of chemical reactivity such as thermal stability, vapour pressure etc. among the precursor species. Given the inherent differences in the physico-chemical properties phase separation and elemental segregation is commonly observed in CVD deposited materials. The de-mixing of elements in multi-component systems is thermodynamically driven and sensitive to the chemical behaviour of the precursors. Transformation of precursor compounds possessing bonding features inherent to the solid-state lowers the need of diffusion and counterbalances the thermodynamic impediments. Recently, we have designed several new metal-organic systems and demonstrated their suitability to deposit decorative and functional coatings on metallic and non-metallic substrates. For instance, we have investigated the decomposition of single molecular sources like Hf(O^tBu)₄, Ti(OⁱPr)₄ and hexamethyldisiloxane (HMDSO) in plasma-enhanced CVD techniques to deposit hafnium oxide (HfO₂), titanium oxide (TiO₂) and silicon (SiO_x) coatings on different substrates as single-layer or multi-layer systems, and have investigated their application as anti-reflective and scratch-resistant surfaces. The plasma-activation process enhances the deposition rates and is suitable for deposition at low substrate temperature like polycarbonate, the film attributes are sensitive to the deposition conditions and a small variation can be detrimental to the film properties. In addition, we will address the role of precursor chemistry in plasma-enhanced deposition of nanostructured coatings.

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