Dielectric properties of europium–indium oxide solid solution films prepared on Si (100) substrates Original Research Article

Thin Eu–In solid solution oxide films (SS) were grown on Si (P) substrates to form MOS devices. The samples were characterised by X-ray fluorescence and X-ray diffraction techniques. The ac-conductance and capacitance of the devices were studied as a function of frequency in the range 500 Hz to 100 kHz, temperature in the range 293–400 K and gate voltage. The investigation established that: (1) the prepared SS exhibit a sudden reversible structural change at about 370 K, (2) the frequency dependence for f>10 kHz of the ac-conductivity and capacitance of the insulator at room temperature is controlled by the ‘corrected barrier hopping’ CBH model, (3) the temperature dependence of the ac-conductance which shows a small activation energy characterises the hopping process of current carriers between equilibrium sites, and (4) the prepared transparent SS have a sufficiently high relative permittivity ɛ, around 30, which suggests they are promising candidates for high-ɛ dielectric applications.