Interface studies of GaAs metal-oxide-semiconductor structures using atomic-layer-deposited HfO2/Al2O3 nanolaminate gate dielectric

A systematic capacitance-voltage study has been performed on GaAs metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) structures with atomic-layer-deposited HfO2/Al2O3 nanolaminates as gate dielectrics. A HfO2/Al2O3 nanolaminate gate dielectric improves the GaAs MOS characteristics such as dielectric constant, breakdown voltage, and frequency dispersion. A possible origin for the widely observed larger frequency dispersion on n-type GaAs than p-type GaAs is discussed. Further experiments show that the observed hysteresis is mainly from the mobile changes and traps induced by HfO2 in bulk oxide instead of those at oxide/GaAs interface. (C) 2007 American Institute of Physics.