Interfacial and electrical characterization of HfO₂/Al₂O₃/InAlAs structures

Abstract

The HfO2/Al2O3 double layer has been deposited by the atomic layer deposition (ALD) technique to a InAlAs epitaxial layer. The chemical composition at the interface was revealed by angle-resolved X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The electrical properties of the ALD-HfO2/Al2O3/InAlAs metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) capacitor have been investigated and compared with those of the ALD-HfO2/InAlAs capacitor. It is demonstrated that the insertion of the Al2O3 layer can decrease interfacial oxidation and trap charge formation. Compared with the HfO2/InAlAs capacitor, the HfO2/Al2O3/InAlAs capacitor exhibits better electrical properties with reduced hysteresis and decreasing stretch-out of the capacitance–voltage (C–V) characteristics, and the oxide trapped charge (Qot) value is significantly decreased after inserting the Al2O3 interlayer.