5 nm thick lanthanum oxide thin films grown on Si(100) by atomic layer deposition: The effect of post-annealing on the electrical properties

Abstract Amorphous stoichiometric lanthanum oxide (La 2 O 3 ) thin films were grown on Si(100) by atomic layer deposition technique using lanthanum 2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-3,5-heptanedione and water (H 2 O) as precursors. The structural and electrical properties were investigated by transmission electron microscope, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), current–voltage ( I – V ) and capacitance–voltage ( C – V ) measurements. In particular, the effects of thermal annealing on the La 2 O 3 film properties such as crystallinity, I – V , and C – V characteristics were measured. Post-annealing at 700 °C improved the electrical properties to reduce the leakage current density up to 2 × 10 − 7 A/cm 2 at the bias voltage of + 1 V. It was also observed that the capacitance increased and the shift of the flat band voltage, V FB , disappeared with the post-annealing.