Pulsed laser deposited ZrAlON films for high-k gate dielectric applications

ZrAlON films were fabricated using the reactive ablation of a ceramic ZrAlO target in N₂ ambient by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique. ZrAlON films were deposited directly on n-Si(100) substrates and Pt coated silicon substrates, respectively, at 500 °C in a 20 Pa N₂ ambient, and rapid thermal annealed (RTA) in N₂ ambient at 1000 °C for 1 min. Cross sectional high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) images clearly show that the ZrAlON/Si interface is atomically sharp without an interfacial layer, and the films are completely amorphous. The electron diffraction pattern of TEM also indicates the amorphous structure of the RTA ZrAlON film. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurement was performed to confirm the effective incorporation of nitrogen with a content of about 6 at. %, and to reveal the N–O bonding in ZrAlON films. The dielectric constant of amorphous ZrAlON was determined to be about 18.2 which is more than 16.8 for ZrAlO by measuring the Pt/films/Pt capacitors. Capacitance–voltage (C–V) measurements show that a small equivalent oxide thickness (EOT) of 1.03 nm for 4 nm ZrAlON film on the n-Si substrate with a leakage current of 28.7 mA/cm² at 1 V gate voltage was obtained. PACS 77.55.+f; 81.15.Fg; 73.40.Qv