Growth Characteristics and Film Properties of Cerium Dioxide Prepared by Plasma-Enhanced Atomic Layer Deposition

CeO(2) thin films were deposited by plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition (PE-ALD). Novel Ce(iPrCp)(3) [tris(isopropyl-cyclopentadienyl) cerium] was used as a Ce precursor, which showed clean evaporation with no residue and good thermal stability. For PE-ALD, O(2) plasma was used as an oxidizing reactant. The PE-ALD process exhibited ALD mode with good self-saturation behavior and linear growth without any nucleation delay on Si substrate as a function of growth cycles. Additionally, it produced highly pure and nearly stoichiometric CeO(2) films with polycrystalline cubic phases. Electrical properties of Al/CeO(2)/p-Si capacitors were improved by O(2) annealing with reduction in interface state density (D(it)), hysteresis, effective oxide charge (Q(eff)) and leakage current density. These experimental results indicate that the PE-ALD CeO(2) using Ce(iPrCp)(3) precursor can be viable option as a future high-k material in the microelectronic industry. (C) 2011 The Electrochemical Society. [DOI: 10.1149/1.3594766] All rights reserved.