Story of the image: Reconstruction of the first Atomic Layer Epitaxy experiment

On December 6th, 2018, I have made a small donation to the world. I uploaded the image, which shows a reconstruction of the first Atomic Layer Epitaxy experiment (nowadays Atomic Layer Deposition) in Wikimedia Commons. (I also created a new gallery, Tuomo Suntola.)

The image is shared in Wikimedia Commons with the Creative Commons Attribute-Share Alike license (CC BY SA 4.0). This means that anyone in the world is free to use the image, also in commercial works, without the need to ask for further permission. The licence requires that one acknowledges the source (BY) and if edits are made, they are shared with a similar licence (SA). Ok ways in my view to acknowledge the source are: 

1. Noting the authors & licence: Riikka Puurunen & Tuomo Suntola 2014 (CC BY-SA 4.0) 
2. linking to the Wikimedia page https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Reconstruction_of_the_first_atomic_layer_epitaxy_experiment_by_Tuomo_Suntola.jpg. 

This image is quite special in my view and it was quite an effort to make it, so I am happy it is now shared for anyone's further use. (If someone is interested, I can tell another time, how it was made.) Had the image been used in the way it was first intended, it would not have been possible to share it in Wikimedia Commons. Luckily, things don't always go as planned. 

Here, I want to tell the story of this Suntola image, as an example to perhaps learn from.

Virtual issue of Chemistry of Materials in Honor of Professor Markku Leskelä

A "virtual issue" - an electronic collection of articles centered on a topic - was published by Chemistry of Materials in July 2018 to celebrate the influential career of professor Markku Leskelä at the verge of his retirement. The virtual issue was published just in time for the ALD 2018 conference, so the conference could celebrate at the same time the 2018 Millennium Technology Prize for Dr. Tuomo Suntola as well as the virtual issue of Prof Leskelä. 

The full virtual issue can be accessed through: https://pubs.acs.org/page/vi/MarkkuLeskela.html. It contains scientific articles published by Leskelä, as well as scientific articles influenced by Leskelä's works, in different journals by ACS. 

A related editorial by his close colleague and first student, Prof. Mikko Ritala and by Chem. Mater. editors is accessible at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemmater.8b02742, entitled "In Honor of Professor Markku Leskelä." 

On the mammoth table - JAP 2005, JAP 2013 - next step VPHA?

The "mammoth table" of two-reactant ALD processes that many ALD researchers will have seen, was created for Puurunen's JAP 2005 review (open access here), and updated for the Miikkulainen et al. JAP 2013 review (open access here).

An idea has come up that it might be possible to update the table again within the Virtual Project on the History of ALD (VPHA). No promises yet---just an idea.

Screen capture of the first rows of the updated "mammoth table" spanning over 17 pages. Reprinted from V. Miikkulainen, M. Leskelä, M. Ritala, R. L. Puurunen, J. Appl. Phys. 113 (2013) 021301, http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4757907, with the permission of AIP Publishing.

With the view of possibly updating the mammoth table, this post describes how the mammoth table was originally created and how it has been once updated. Whether or not an update will be made within VPHA, the background information shared here should be useful regarding an update that eventually at some point in some form most likely will be made. A previous post on the unique article codes used in VPHA is related to this post and the mammoth table: the unique coding was already started for the JAP 2005 review and re-used in the Miikkulainen et al. JAP 2013 review as well as in VPHA's ALD-history-evolving-file. If/when an update to the mammoth table will be made within VPHA, the unique article codes will be used again.

ALD surface chemistry review and the mammoth table - Puurunen, JAP 2005

The mammoth table aims to summarize all two-reactant ALD processes developed by a given timeline. The table was first created for the JAP 2005 review.

When writing the JAP 2005 review, I had a vision to try to write the kind of review article which I hoped would have been available when I started with ALD in 1998.

On the "earlier ALD history activities" mentioned in the JVSTA focused ALD history review

As stated in the focused ALD history review recently published in the Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology A, the Virtual Project on the History of ALD (VPHA) "in essence, continues the earlier ALD history activities of one of the current authors, whose results were published in a review article in 2005."

In this post, I wish to tell more of the background of the earlier ALD history activities mentioned: how they started and what they were. The earlier history activities are related to my own doctoral thesis (2002) and the postdoctoral time after that.

Screen capture,  R. L. Puurunen's doctoral thesis at the Aalto University library server, access through http://lib.tkk.fi/Diss/2002/isbn9512261421/.

Microchemistry, Neste and Helsinki University of Technology - doctoral thesis

I made my Master's thesis in 1998 at Microchemistry, Espoo, Finland (nowadays part of ASM International), and continued for doctorate in 1999-2002 partly Neste and partly Helsinki University of Technology (HUT). Generalizing, the subject of my research was the surface modification of porous particles by atomic layer deposition for catalyst applications.

Views on Wikipedia related to ALD and VPHA

People of all sorts of backgrounds (including journalists and politicians) use Wikipedia as a quick source to find basic information on a variety of subjects.

The next image shows pageviews analysis for a few pages relevant to ALD and VPHA, taken on January 28, 2017, and showing the statistics for the past twenty days. For example, the page of atomic layer deposition is viewed typically 100 to 200 times per day, while chemical vapor deposition is viewed typically 300 to 700 times per day. There is a pattern related to week days: towards weekend, there are less views. To compare, in ALD History Blog, the typical number of pageviews for an average page is several tens; the most viewed post (travel notes from ALD 2016) has received 297 views all time as of Feb 28, 2017.

I have during VPHA understood how valuable Wikipedia and also Wikimedia Commons are as a sources, and I invite everyone to contribute in continuously improving their information. Non-specialists will appreciate clear and jargon-free language, logical structure of the page, good pictures and relevant references. Review articles should be good as links. All references should be openly available for viewing---regarding scientific articles, this means that they should be not be behind a paywall but be of open access.

Baltic ALD 2016, St. Petersburg: travel notes by Puurunen

Updated October 9, 2016

The 14th International Baltic Conference on Atomic Layer Deposition (Baltic ALD 2016, http://www.bald2016.ru/) was organized in St. Petersburg, Russia, on October 3-4, 2016.

The conference consisted of one day of invited lectures and one day of contributed talks and posters. The conference venue was Solo Sokos Hotel Palace Bridge (V.o. Birzhevoi Pereulok 2-4, St. Petersburg, 199004) on the Vasilievsky Island. A get-together event was organized on October 2, 2016. The conference chairman was Prof. Vladimir Kutuzov, the rector of St. Petersburg Electrotechnical University"LETI" and the chairman of the International Advisory Board was Prof. Markku Leskelä from the University of Helsinki. Central local organizers were Prof. Nikolay Egorov and Prof. Alexey Ivanov from LETI. Roughly forty persons participated at the conference. I (Riikka Puurunen) had the pleasure to participate at BALD 2016 both as an invited speaker and as a regular contributor. This was the third time that I participated at a Baltic ALD conference; earlier, I have attended the Baltic ALD of 2014 in Helsinki and of 2015 in Tartu (travel report).

ALD history at ALD 2016 Ireland

Prof Greg Parsons introducing Prof Anatoly Malygin to give a plenary talk at ALD 2016. Photo by Riikka Puurunen.

The ALD 2016 conference was a major step forward in advancing the understanding of the worldwide history of Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD). Progress took place at least in three ways:

1. Prof. Anatoly Malygin (St. Petersburg State Technological Institute (Technical University)) delivered an invited talk. ALD 2016 was the first time ever that a person representing the branch of ALD of "old Russian works" has presented a talk at the international ALD conferences. Great thanks Prof. Malygin delivering the talk as well as for the conference chairs Dr. Simon Elliott and Dr. Jonas Sundqvist for inviting him.

Photos from HERALD WG2 / ALDCoE Helsinki workshop

We had a very fine HERALD/ALDCoE workshop in Helsinki early this week. About ninety people were present from four continents. Excellent invited talks were delivered e.g. by:

• Prof. Marc Heyns, IMEC, Belgium, 
• Dr. Simon Rushworth, EpiValence, UK
• Dr. Paul Williams, Pegasus Chemicals, UK
• Dr. David C. Smith, LAM Research, USA 
• Prof. Christophe Detavernier, Ghent University, Belgium
• Prof. Anjana Devi, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany
• Prof. Jaan Aarik,  University of Tartu, Estonia
• Prof. Erwin Kessels, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands

Thank you for all invited speakers and participants, as well as the organizers, especially Prof Markku Leskelä, the head of ALDCoE and the chairman of this event, and Dr. Ville Miikkulainen, who is the coordinator or ALDCoE and who was the main practical organizer of the event.

Riikka Puurunen pitching the VPHA organizational poster. Photo by Oili Ylivaara (Twitter via @rlpuu)

Some photos from the event are collected below, published in Twitter by Riikka Puurunen (@rlpuu), Oili Ylivaara (@ltoili), Pegasus Chemicals (@PegasusChemical) and in LinkedIn by Simon Rushworth. A collection of earlier VPHA-related travel reports published in the ALD History Blog can be found here.

VPHA status update 2016-04-29

 The status update below was sent to 54 co-authors and 35 prospective co-authors.

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Dear VPHA co-authors and prospective co-authors,

About a month has passed since the previous status update on March 31. It is a good time to stop again and see what has been the progress of last month. You can access previous updates in this link. This status update contains information on the following topics:

1 VPHA reading for ALD 2016 Dublin

2 LinkedIn ALD terminology discussion: GPC

3 ALD conference list

4 VPHA organizational poster in the HERALD Helsinki meeting

5 ALD History Blog statistics after half a year of the blog

Baltic ALD 2015, Tartu: travel notes by Riikka Puurunen

The 13th International Baltic Conference on Atomic Layer Deposition, Baltic ALD 2015 was organised in Tartu, Estonia, September 28-29, 2015. Conference chairs were Prof. Jaan Aarik and Dr. Kaupo Kukli. Conference website: http://www.bald2015.ee/. Right after the conference, on September 30, 2015, there was the yearly meeting day of the HERALD COST network on ALD (http://www.european-ald.net/).

I have not visited Tartu before, and it was very interesting to attend this Baltic ALD conference in the historical city of Tartu, where the first report of ALD (then, ALE) is from year 1983. This post in the ALD History Blog finally shares my travel notes from Baltic ALD, both as text and photos. BALD Engineering collected a "photo show" during the event, which can be found here. In Twitter, post and pictures from Baltic ALD conferences can be found back with hashtag #BalticALD.

Colours, colours! The Baltic ALD 2015 conference was organized at the Physicum building of Tartu University. Photo by Riikka Puurunen. 

Nov 29: Story of a cover image, "Reconstruction of the first ALE experiment"

November 29, 2014, it was exactly 40 years since the filing of the first patent on Atomic Layer Epitaxy by Suntola and Antson (FIN 52359). To celebrate this, the Finnish Centre of Excellence on Atomic Layer Deposition (ALDCoE) released the material of the exhibition "40 Years of ALD in Finland - Photos, Stories" (FinALD40) in the internet. Originally, this exhibition had been created for the Baltic ALD 2014 conference in Helsinki, May 12-13, 2014.

Today, one year later, I want to tell you the story behind the cover image of the internet release of the the FinALD40 exhibition material. The cover image is called: "reconstruction of the first ALE experiment" and is shown in the next figure.

"Reconstruction of the first ALE experiment". © Riikka Puurunen 2014