Effect of Y concentration and film thickness on microstructure and electrical properties of HfO2 based thin films

Abstract

In this work, we introduced a simple solution processing method to prepare yttrium (Y) doped hafnium oxide (HfO2) based dielectric films. The films had high densities, low surface roughness, maximum permittivity of about 32, leakage current < 1.0 × 10−7 A/cm2 at 2 MV/cm, and breakdown field >5.0 MV/cm. In addition to dielectric performance, we investigated the influence of YO1.5 fraction on the electronic structure between Y doped HfO2 thin films and silicon (Si) substrates. The valence band electronic structure, energy gap and conduction band structure changed linearly with YO1.5 fraction. Given this cost-effective deposition technique and excellent dielectric performance, solution-processed Y doped HfO2 based thin films have the potential for insulator applications.