The formation of Pr oxide films by an atomic layer deposition (ALD) technique using Pr(EtCp) 3 and H 2 O was investigated in this study. The ALDmode growth of Pr oxide films at a rate of 0.07 nm/cycle and a thickness variation of less than 2% on 3-in. Si wafers was achieved. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images and transmission electron diffraction (TED) patterns revealed that polycrystalline cubic Pr 2 O 3 films were grown on Si (001) substrates. On the other hand, epitaxial growth of the cubic Pr 2 O 3 film was clearly observed on a Si(111) substrate. According to X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analyses, the C content of the ALD-Pr oxide film grown at 130 C is 1.6%. Relatively fine capacitancevoltage curves were observed for the Al/ALD-Pr oxide/Si(001) capacitors. The interface state density between the 130 C-grown ALD-Pr oxide film and the Si(001) substrate is about 1 Â 10 11 cm À2 eV À1 . The dielectric constant of the ALD-Pr oxide film grown at 250 C was determined to be about 18, assuming that the dielectric constant of the interlayers is similar to that of SiO 2 . #

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