Band offsets between amorphous La2Hf2O7 and silicon

Amorphous La2Hf2O7 films were grown on Si(100) by pulsed laser deposition method. The valence and conduction band offsets between amorphous La2Hf2O7 film and silicon were determined by using synchrotron radiation photoemission spectroscopy. The energy band gap of amorphous La2Hf2O7 film was measured from the energy-loss spectra of O 1s photoelectrons. The band gap of amorphous La2Hf2O7 film was determined to be 5.4±0.2 eV. The valence and the conduction-band offsets of amorphous La2Hf2O7 film to Si were obtained to be 2.7±0.2 and 1.6±0.2 eV, respectively. These results indicated that the amorphous La2Hf2O7 film could be one promising candidate for high-k gate dielectrics.