Stabilization of a very high-k crystalline ZrO2 phase by post deposition annealing of atomic layer deposited ZrO2/La2O3 dielectrics on germanium

The impact of the ZrO2/La2O3 film thickness ratio and the post deposition annealing in the temperature range between 400 °C and 600 °C on the electrical properties of ultrathin ZrO2/La2O3 high-k dielectrics grown by atomic layer deposition on (1 0 0) germanium is investigated. As-deposited stacks have a relative dielectric constant of 24 which is increased to a value of 35 after annealing at 500 °C due to the stabilization of tetragonal/cubic ZrO2 phases. This effect depends on the absolute thickness of ZrO2 within the dielectric stack and is limited due to possible interfacial reactions at the oxide/Ge interface. We show that adequate processing leads to very high-k dielectrics with EOT values below 1 nm, leakage current densities in the range of 0.01 A/cm2, and interface trap densities in the range of 2–5 × 1012 eV−1 cm−2.