Plasma oxidation of metallic gadolinium deposited on silicon by high pressure sputtering as high permittivity dielectric

Gadolinium oxide thin films were deposited on Si by sputtering a metallic gadolinium target at high pressure followed by an in situ plasma oxidation. Different metal deposition times with the same oxidation conditions were studied. The deposition conditions were analyzed by means of glow discharge optical spectroscopy. The oxide films were characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, high resolution transmission electron microscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The films resulted stoichiometric and amorphous. Metal-insulator-semiconductor structures were fabricated with two different metal gates: titanium and platinum. The devices were measured before and after temperature treatments in a forming gas atmosphere. The Ti gated devices scavenge the SiO_x interlayer while the Pt ones show no metal reaction.