Synchrotron X-ray reflectivity study of high dielectric constant alumina thin films prepared by atomic layer deposition

High dielectric constant (high-k) gate dielectric alumina films were prepared with nanoscale thicknesses on p-type silicon substrates by atomic layer deposition (ALD) with alternating pulses of trimethyl aluminum, nitrogen, ozone and nitrogen, and some of them were further thermally annealed. These high-k gate dielectric films were characterized by synchrotron X-ray reflectivity (XR), and the XR data were quantitatively analyzed, providing the following structural parameters of each gate dielectric film: the surface roughness and interfacial roughness, the electron density profile, the number of layers, and the thickness of individual layers. These structural characteristics were then analyzed in detail by considering the ALD processing conditions and post-thermal annealing history.