Abstract

Thin silicon dioxide layers (40-100 A) can be successfully produced by anodization of silicon in pure water. The resulting layers are very homogeneous and pinhole free. The monitoring of the SiO2 thickness is accurately achieved by simple coulometry. The electrical properties of the oxide layers and the associated Si/SiO2 interface have been investigated by forming metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) capacitors using the anodically grown oxide as the dielectric and aluminium or chromium as the metal. This investigation shows a low charge density at the Si/SiO2 interface (≤ 10 11 charges. cm-2) and an interface states density comparable to that obtained with thermally grown SiO2 (1011 cm -2eV-1). The dielectric breakdown occurs at high fields (11 to 14 MW . cm-1). These results show that there is no pollution during the electrolysis. Furthermore, the metal to oxide barrier heights remained high (2.5 to 2.8 eV) even for thin (44 A) SiO2 layers.

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