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Highlights: [•] Al2O3/HfO2/Al2O3 gate stacks has been deposited on Si substrate by ALD. [•] Interface thermal stability related with annealing temperature has been studied. [•] Phase separation at 700°C and silicate formation at 900°C have been detected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In current work, effects of rapid thermal annealing on the interface chemical bonding states, band alignment, and electrical properties of atomic-layer-deposition-derived HfAlO/Al 2 O 3 gate stack on Si substrates have been studied by X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS), UV–Vis transmission spectroscopy, and electrical measurements. XPS analyses have shown that HfAlO alloy and mixed silicate (Hf-Al-O-Si) increase after post-deposition annealing process. By means of UV–Vis transmission spectroscopy measurements, reduction in band gap for 400 o C-annealed sample has been observed. Accordingly, reduction in the valence band offset and increase in the conduction band offset have been detected for HfAlO/Al 2 O 3 /Si gate stack annealed at 400 °C. Various current conduction mechanisms, such as Poole-Frenkel emission, Fowler-Nordheim (FN) tunneling, and space-charge-limited (SCL) conduction, have been analyzed. Detailed electrical measurements reveal that current conduct mechanisms is SCL conduction at lower field region and FN tunneling and SCL conduction are dominant conduction mechanism at higher field region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The optical properties, interface chemistry and band alignment of Hf 1− x Ti x O 2 ( x = 0.03, 0.08, 0.12 and 0.20) high- k gate dielectric thin films, deposited by RF sputtering on Si substrate, have been systematically investigated. The effect of TiO 2 incorporation on the interfacial chemical structure and energy-band discontinuities has been investigated by using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV–vis). It has been found that the band gap and band offsets of the Hf 1− x Ti x O 2 thin film decrease with the increase of TiO 2 concentration. Meanwhile, the obtained band offsets are all over 1 eV. Thin film capacitors fabricated with the MOS configuration of Al/Hf 1− x Ti x O 2 /n-Si/Al exhibits excellent electrical properties with low interface state density, hysteresis voltage and low leakage current density. The suitable band gap, symmetrical band offsets relative to Si and prominent electrical properties render sputtering-derived Hf 1− x Ti x O 2 with 9% TiO 2 films as promising candidates for high- k gate dielectrics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]