Post-deposition treatments reaction, heating

Generally, for the low temperature deposition of a compound film, one of the reacting species should be condensable and the other gaseous e.g. Ti -i- N. If both are condensable, e.g. Tl + C, the best deposition condition is to have a high substrate temperature to promote reaction, have concurrent bombardment, or use post-deposition heat treatment to react the mixture. The stoichiometry of a deposited compound can depend on the amount of reaction that occurs before the surface is buried. This depends on the amount of reactant available, the reaction probability, and the deposition rate. Reactively deposited films of oxides, carbides, nitrides, and carbonitrides are commonly used in optics, electronics, decorative, and mechanical applications. 

Post-deposition heat treatments are used to promote reaction between unreacted co-deposited materials and to promote reaction of the deposited material with an ambient gas. For instance, it is common practice to heat deposited high temperature oxide superconductor films in an oxygen atmosphere to improve their performance ITO films are heated in forming gas... 

Shi, Y. Jin, Z. Li, C. An, H. Qiu, J. 2007. Effects of post-heat treatment on the characteristics of chalcopyrite CuInSe2 film deposited by successive ionic layer absorption and reaction method. Thin Solid Films 515 3339-3343. 

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