Structural properties and electrical characteristics of electron-beam gun evaporated erbium oxide films

Abstract

We report properties of Er2O3 films deposited on silicon using electron-beam gun evaporation. We describe the evolution with thickness and annealing temperature of the morphology, structure, and electrical characteristics. An effective relative dielectric constant in the range of 6–14, a minimum leakage current density of 1–2×10−8 A/cm2 at an electric field of 106 V/cm and breakdown electric field of 0.8–1.7×107 V/cm are demonstrated. Breakdown electric field and leakage current densities are correlated with the surface morphology. The obtained characteristics make the Er2O3 films a promising substitute for SiO2 as an ultrathin gate dielectric.

DC conduction properties of oxidised erbium films deposited on Si(100) substrates

“…[7] have observed that among rare-earth oxides (REOs), Er oxide reacts very poorly with Si substrate even at 900 • C. This makes Er oxide attractive for investigation as a gate dielectric [1,8,9]. The electrical properties of Er oxide prepared by different methods like oxide vapour deposition (OVD) or chemical vapour deposition (CVD) were studied in many investigations [1,2,4,5,9].…”

“…Erbium oxide has been the subject of extensive electrical studies because of its excellent dielectric and semiconducting properties [1][2][3][4][5][6]. Besides, Er-oxide film is chemically stable in contact with silicon substrate at room temperature.…”

Optical and structural characterization of thermal oxidation effects of erbium thin films deposited by electron beam on silicon

“…% Er), have been shown to display an even higher dielectric constant (j ¼ 33-37.6). 5,6 Also, Er 2 O 3 thin films exhibit a relatively large conduction band offset on silicon (> 2 eV), 2,4,7,8 and a lattice constant that is conducive to epitaxial growth on Si (the Er 2 O 3 lattice constant of $ 10.54 Å is about twice that of Si). 9 Similarly, erbium oxide is under active consideration as a source of efficient room-temperature light emission.…”

“…In particular, erbium-based oxides are a promising candidate for high-k gate dielectrics in MOS devices. [2][3][4] Erbium oxide (Er 2 O 3 ) is characterized by a high dielectric constant (j ¼ 10-14), a wide bandgap (E g $ 5 eV), and is chemically inert with silicon. 4 Additionally, high-j dielectric materials, such as annealed Er-doped HfO 2 (15 at.…”

Synthesis of Erbia Decorated Titania Nanowires Array Using Glancing Angle Deposition Technique

“…Among the various rare earth oxides, erbium oxide or erbia (Er 2 O 3 ) is emerged as an interesting dopant due its superior properties such as high dielectric constant (~14), high mechanical strength, excellent chemical and thermal stability in contact with Si, wide band gap (~5.4eV) [16,19], hardness and highly transparency in visible light [19][20][21][22]. The ion implantation, CVD method, Sol-gel method, hydrothermal method, e-beam evaporation techniques have been employed for the growth of erbium oxide [23][24][25]. In this study, we have synthesized the vertically oriented Er 2 O 3 nanoparticles (NPs) decorated TiO 2 NW arrays on Si substrate by glancing angle deposition (GLAD) technique inside the e-beam evaporator.…”