Post deposition treatments for CVD cobalt films

A method for depositing materials on a substrate surface, comprising:

• forming a cobalt stack comprising a plurality of plasma-treated cobalt layers over a barrier layer disposed on a substrate by sequentially depositing and treating cobalt layers, wherein each cobalt layer is deposited from a deposition gas comprising a cobalt source gas and hydrogen gas (H2) during a thermal chemical vapor deposition process and subsequently exposed to a plasma to form each of the plasma-treated cobalt layers during a plasma process;
• exposing the cobalt stack to an oxygen source gas to form a cobalt oxide layer during a surface oxidation process;
• and
• heating the cobalt stack to a crystallization temperature to form a crystalline cobalt film during a thermal annealing crystallization process.

A method for depositing materials on a substrate surface, comprising:

• forming a cobalt stack over a barrier layer disposed on a substrate by:
• depositing a cobalt layer during a deposition process;
• exposing the cobalt layer to a plasma to form a plasma-treated cobalt layer during a plasma process;
• and
• repeating the deposition process and the plasma process to form the cobalt stack comprising a plurality of plasma-treated cobalt layers;
• exposing the cobalt stack to an oxygen source gas to form a cobalt oxide layer during a surface oxidation process, wherein the cobalt oxide layer has a thickness within a range from about 5 Å to about 30 Å, and the substrate is heated to a temperature within a range from about 200° C. to about 500° C. for a time period of about 60 seconds or less during the surface oxidation process;
• heating the cobalt stack to a crystallization temperature to form a crystalline cobalt film during a thermal annealing crystallization process;
• depositing a conductive metallic layer on the crystalline cobalt film, wherein the metal of the conductive metallic layer comprises a metal selected from the group consisting of aluminum, copper, titanium, alloys thereof, and combinations thereof;
• and
• heating the substrate while diffusing the metal of the conductive metallic layer into the crystalline cobalt film.