Phase control of magnetron sputtering deposited Gd2O3 thin films as high-κ gate dielectrics

Gd2O3 thin films as high-κ gate dielectrics were deposited directly on Si(001) substrates by magnetron sputtering at a pressure of 1.3 Pa and different temperatures. X-ray diffraction results revealed that all the films grown from 450 to 570 °C were crystalline, and the Gd2O3 thin films consisted of a mixture of cubic and monoclinic phases. The growth temperature was a critical parameter for the phase constituents and their relative amount. Low temperature was favorable for the formation of cubic phase while higher temperature gave rise to more monoclinic phase. All the Gd2O3 thin films grown from different temperatures exhibited acceptable electrical properties, such as low leakage current density (JL) of 10−5 A/cm2 at zero bias with capacitance equivalent SiO2 thickness in the range of 6–13 nm. Through the comparison between films grown at 450 and 570 °C, the existence of monoclinic phase caused an increase in JL by nearly one order of magnitude and a reduction of effective dielectric constant from 17 to 9.