A physical model for the hysteresis phenomenon of the ultrathin ZrO[sub 2] film.

This work studies and presents an inner-interface trapping physical model for the ultra-thin (effective oxide thickness= 15 Å) zirconium oxide (ZrO[sub 2]) film to explain its hysteresis phenomenon. The shift of the capacitance-voltage characteristics swept from accumulation to inversion and then swept back with light illumination is about 110 mV, which is larger than the shift without light illumination (∼45 mV). The mobile ion effect is obviated using bias-temperature stress measurement. The proposed model successfully explains not only the phenomenon but also the thickness effect for the capacitance-voltage characteristics and the different turn-around voltages of the current density-voltage characteristics of the zirconium dielectrics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]