The effects of post-annealing on pulse laser deposition of Zr 0.8 Sn 0.2 TiO 4 thin film on Si(100)

Abstract

ABSTRACT We demonstrate the pulse laser deposition (PLD) of zirconium tin titanium oxide (Zr0.8,Sn0.2)TiO4 (ZST) thin film on p-type Si (100)substrate by KrF excimer laser at room temper ature, and the study of the ef fects of post-annealing to the optical and dielectric properties of the deposited ZST thin films. Deposition rate of ZST thin film at 0.3 A/pulse has been achieved with laser fluences of 1500 mJ/cm 2 . Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) are used to study the effect of the crys talline properties of the deposited films on process parameters; such as laser fluence and annealing temperature. In addition, UV-Vis spectroscopy is used to characterize the optical properties of the deposited ZST films. Keywords : Pulse laser deposition, ZST thin film, MIS devices 1. INTRODUCTION Zirconium tin titanium oxide (ZST) with dielectric constant as high as 30, and low temperature coefficient of resonance frequency makes ZST an attractive thin film material for hi gh density capacitors and micr owave electronic components [1-4]. In addition, the piezoelectric property of the ZST makes it a potential application in acousto-optic devices. Thus, it is important of controlling the optic properties of the ZST in realizing ZST thin film devices process. Advantages of excimer laser such as high photon energy, broad area of illumination, and pulse operation mode make excimer laser based techniques widespread applications in material scien ces, solid state physics, and semiconductor devices processing [5-7]. In pulse laser deposition (PLD) process, a target is ir radiated with photon energy within nanoseconds and a plume of ablated species is ejected out from th e surface of the target [8-1 0]. The ejected species cont aining variety of energetic species including atoms, molecules, char ged particles, and molten particulates, clusters are deposited onto the substrate in vacuum. In principle, PLD is able to obtain deposition of a film with the almost some composition at target. The mechanism of laser-target interaction is complex within nanoseconds time range in which the energy transfer process such as electronic, thermal, mechanical and chemical energy, resulting in evaporation ablation of target elements. We present the deposition of ZST thin film on Si(100) by PLD, and the study of the effects of post-annealing to the optical