Characterization of Y2O3 gate dielectric on n-GaAs substrates

Physical and electrical properties of sputtered deposited Y2O3 films on NH4OH treated n-GaAs substrate are investigated. The as-deposited films and interfacial layer formation have been analyzed by using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS). It is found that directly deposited Y2O3 on n-GaAs exhibits excellent electrical properties with low frequency dispersion (<5%), hysteresis voltage (0.24 V), and interface trap density (3 × 1012 eV−1 cm−2). The results show that the deposition of Y2O3 on n-GaAs can be an effective way to improve the interface quality by the suppression on native oxides formation, especially arsenic oxide which causes Fermi level pinning at high-k/GaAs interface. The Al/Y2O3/n-GaAs stack with an equivalent oxide thickness (EOT) of 2.1 nm shows a leakage current density of 3.6 × 10−6 A cm−2 at a VFB of 1 V. While the low-field leakage current conduction mechanism has been found to be dominated by the Schottky emission, Poole–Frenkel emission takes over at high electric fields. The energy band alignment of Y2O3 films on n-GaAs substrate is extracted from detailed XPS measurements. The valence and conduction band offsets at Y2O3/n-GaAs interfaces are found to be 2.14 and 2.21 eV, respectively.