Nitride passivation reduces interfacial traps in atomic-layer-deposited Al2O3/GaAs (001) metal-oxide-semiconductor capacitors using atmospheric metal-organic chemical vapor deposition

Abstract

Using an atmospheric metal-organic chemical vapor deposition system, we passivated GaAs with AlN prior to atomic layer deposition of Al2O3. This AlN passivation incorporated nitrogen at the Al2O3/GaAs interface, improving the capacitance-voltage (C–V) characteristics of the resultant metal-oxide-semiconductor capacitors (MOSCAPs). The C–V curves of these devices showed a remarkable reduction in the frequency dispersion of the accumulation capacitance. Using the conductance method at various temperatures, we extracted the interfacial density of states (Dit). The Dit was reduced over the entire GaAs band gap. In particular, these devices exhibited Dit around the midgap of less than 4 × 1012 cm−2eV−1, showing that AlN passivation effectively reduced interfacial traps in the MOS structure.