Comparison of hydrolytic and non-hydrolytic atomic layer deposition chemistries: Interfacial electronic properties at alumina-silicon interfaces

Abstract

We report the differences in the passivation and electronic properties of aluminum oxide (Al2O3) deposited on silicon via traditional hydrolytic atomic layer deposition (ALD) and non-hydrolytic (NH) ALD chemistries. Traditional films were grown using trimethylaluminum (TMA) and water and NHALD films grown using TMA and isopropanol at 300 °C. Hydrolytically grown ALD films contain a smaller amount of fixed charge than NHALD films (oxide fixed charge Qf Traditional = −8.1 × 1011 cm−2 and Qf NHALD = −3.6 × 1012 cm−2), and a larger degree of chemical passivation than NHALD films (density of interface trap states, Dit Traditional = 5.4 × 1011 eV−1 cm−2 and Dit NHALD = 2.9 × 1012 eV−1 cm−2). Oxides grown with both chemistries were found to have a band gap of 7.1 eV. The conduction band offset was 3.21 eV for traditionally grown films and 3.38 eV for NHALD. The increased Dit for NHALD films may stem from carbon impurities in the oxide layer that are at and near the silicon surface, as evidenced by both the larger trap state time constant (τTraditional = 2.2 × 10−9 s and τNHALD = 1.7 × 10−7 s) and the larger carbon concentration. We have shown that the use of alcohol-based oxygen sources in NHALD chemistry can significantly affect the resulting interfacial electronic behavior presenting an additional parameter for understanding and controlling interfacial electronic properties at semiconductor-dielectric interfaces.