System and Method for Thermally Cracking Ammonia

Systems and methods are provided herein to thermally activate a nitrogen-containing gas at lower activation temperatures (e.g., below 2000 C) than conventional hot-wire heating methods, while more effectively heating larger gas volumes. In the disclosed embodiments, a gas activation chamber is provided within a deposition system for thermally activating a nitrogen-containing gas. In one example, ammonia (NH3) may be thermally activated within the gas activation chamber to generate ammonia radicals and/or hydrazine compounds before the ammonia, ammonia radicals and/or hydrazine compounds are delivered to the substrate surface. Because ammonia radicals and hydrazine compounds are significantly more reactive than ammonia, especially at lower substrate temperatures (e.g.,