Effects of post-deposition annealing in O2 on the electrical characteristics of LaAlO3 films on Si -: art. no. 022901

LaAlO3 films were deposited on p-type Si(100) by sputtering from a LaAlO3 target. C x V characteristics were determined in nonannealed and O-2-annealed capacitors having LaAlO3 films as dielectric and RuO2 as top electrode. Thermal annealing in O-2 atmosphere reduced flat band voltage to acceptable values for advanced Si-based devices. O-16-O-18 isotopic substitution was characterized by Rutherford backscattering spectrometry and nuclear resonant reaction profiling. Chemical analysis of the films was accomplished by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The electrical improvements observed after thermal annealing in O-2 were attributed to the incorporation of oxygen from the gas phase, possibly healing oxygen vacancies in the films and providing mobile oxygen to the interface. (c) 2005 American Institute of Physics.