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Discrete β-Ta2O5 crystallite formation in reactively sputtered amorphous thin films

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Abstract

The crystallization of thin amorphous TaOx films formed by d.c. reactive sputtering was investigated at temperatures from 500–700 °C. The films remained amorphous for times up to 100 h at 500 °C. The formation of discrete, single crystallites of the orthorhombic β-Ta2O5 phase was observed after annealing at 600 °C for times from 8–108 h. The crystallites were 0.35 μm×0.35 μm after 8 h and grew to approximately 2.5 μm×2.0 μm after 108 h. A (2 0 0) fibre texture with a 6° spread was observed. More rapid in-plane growth in the [0 1 0] direction resulted in a near-rectangular shape and is attributed to a ledge growth mechanism. Higher temperature anneals at 650 and 700 °C produced less-textured polycrystalline films with remnant amorphous regions. © 1998 Kluwer Academic Publishers

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Integrated Electronics and Electronics Manufacturing, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, 12180, USA knorr@worldnet.att.net

    P. J. Beckage, D. B. Knorr, X. M. Wu, T.-M. Lu & E. J. Rymaszewski

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  1. P. J. Beckage
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  2. D. B. Knorr
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  3. X. M. Wu
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  4. T.-M. Lu
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  5. E. J. Rymaszewski
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Beckage, P.J., Knorr, D.B., Wu, X.M. et al. Discrete β-Ta2O5 crystallite formation in reactively sputtered amorphous thin films. Journal of Materials Science 33, 4375–4379 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1004484915386

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