Abstract
Significant research effort is currently being devoted to study deposition, dielectric, and electronic properties of binary rare earth oxides, as well as of complex oxides based on rare earth elements. Most of the motivations justifying this effort are found in the field of microelectronics – especially in the search of high dielectric constant oxides as candidates to substitute SiO2 – and these will be mostly discussed. Open problems and issues from the scientific and technological point of view are discussed, and applications in fields other than microelectronics (such as spintronics) are also mentioned.
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
L. Petit, A. Svane, Z. Szotek, W. M. Temmerman: First principles study of rare-earth oxides, Phys. Rev. B
W. M. Temmerman, Z. Szotek, A. Svane, P. Strange, H. Winter, A. Delin, B. Johansson, O. Eriksson, L. Fast, J. M. Wills: Electronic configuration of ytterbium compounds, Phys. Rev. Lett. 83, 3900 (1999)
M. Horne, P. Strange, W. M.Temmerman, Z. Szotek, A. Svane, H. Winter: The electronic structure of europium chalcogenides and pnictides, J. Phys. Condens. Matter 16, 5061 (2004)
A. Svane, V. Kanchana, G. Vaitheeswaran, G. Santi, W. M. Temmerman, Z. Szotek, P. Strange, L. Petit: Electronic structure of samarium monopnictides and monochalcogenides, Phys. Rev. B 71, 45119 (2005)
P. Villars, L. D. Calvert: Pearson's handbook of crystallographic data for intermetallic phases, 2 ed. (ASM International, Ohio 1991)
J. M. Leger, N. Yacoubi, J. Loriers: Synthesis of rare earth monoxides, J. Sol. State Chem. 36, 1981 (1981)
Y. Sakabe, Y. Hamaji, H. Sano, N. Wada: Effects of rare-earth oxides on the reliability of X7R dielectrics, Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 41, 5668 (2002)
G. D. Wilk, R. M. Wallace, J. M. Anthony: High-κgate dielectrics: current status and materials properties, J. Appl. Phys. 89, 5243 (2001)
D. G. Schlom, J. H. Haeni: A thermodynamic approach to selecting alternative gate deielctrics, MRS Bull. 27, 198 (2002)
J. P. Liu, P. Zaumseil, E. Bugiel, H. J. Osten: Epitaxial growth of Pr2O3 on Si(111) and the observation of a hexagonal to cubic phase transition during post-growth N2 annealing, Appl. Phys. Lett. 79, 671 (2001)
M. Hong, J. Kwo, A. R. Kortan, J. P. Mannaerts, A. M. Sergent: Epitaxial cubic gadolinium oxide as a dielectric for gallium arsenide passivation, Science 283, 1897 (1999)
V. Narayanan, S. Guha, M. Copel, N. A. Bojarczuk, P. L. Flaitz, M. Gribelyuk: Interfacial oxide formation and oxygen diffusion in rare earth oxide – silicon epitaxial heterostructures, Appl. Phys. Lett. 81, 4183 (2002)
S. Stemmer: Thermodynamic considerations in the stability of binary oxides for alternative gate dielectrics in complementary metal-oxide-semiconductors, J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 22, 791 (2004)
L. Marsella, V. Fiorentini: Structure and stability of rare-earth and transition-metal oxides, Phys. Rev. B 69, 172103 (2004)
G. Scarel, E. Bonera, C. Wiemer, G. Tallarida, S. Spiga, M. Fanciulli, I. Fedushkin, H. Schumann, Y. Lebedinskii, A. Zenkevich: Atomic layer deposition of Lu203, Appl. Phys. Lett. 85, 630 (2004)
M. Malvestuto, G. Scarel, C. Wiemer, M. Fanciulli, F. D'Acapito, F. Boscherini: X-ray absorption spectroscopy study of Yb203 and Lu203 thin films deposited on Si(100) by atomic layer deposition, Nuc. Instr. Method. B 246, 90 (2006)
H. Schumann, I. Fedushkin, M. Hummert, G. Scarel, E. Bonera, M. Fanciulli: Crystal and molecular structure of [(η 5-c5h4sime3)2lucl]2 – suitable precursor for Lu203 films, Z. Naturforsch. 59b, 1035 (2004)
M. F. Fischetti, D. A. Neumayer, E. A. Cartier: Effective electron mobility in Si inversion layers in metal-oxide-semiconductor systems with a high-κ insulator: the role of remote phonon scattering, J. Appl. Phys. 90, 4587 (2001)
N. V. Skorodumova, S. I. Simak, B. I. Lundqvist, I. A. Abrikosov, B. Johansson: Quantum origin of the oxygen storage capability of ceria, Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 166601 (2002)
J. Lettieri, V. Vaithyanathan, S. K. Eah, J. Stephens, V. Sih, D. D. Awschalom, J. Levy, D. G. Schlom: Epitaxial growth and magnetic properties of EuO on (001) Si by molecular-beam epitaxy, Appl. Phys. Lett. 83, 975 (2003)
A. V. Prokofiev, A. I. Shelyakh, B. T. Melekh: Periodicity in the band gap variation of Ln2X3 (X = O, S, Se) in the lanthanide series, J. All. Comp. 242, 41 (1996)
H. B. Lal, K. Gaur: Electrical conduction in non-metallic rare-earth solids, J. Mater. Sci. 23, 919 (1988)
I. A. Bersuker: Electronic Structure and Properties of Transition Metal Compounds (Wiley 1996) Chap. 7
G. Lucovsky, Y. Zhang, G. B. Rayner, G. Appel, H. Ade, J. L. Whitten: Electronic structure of high-transition metal oxides and their silicate and aluminate alloys, J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 20, 1739 (2002)
G. Lucovsky, J. P. Maria, J. C. Phillips: Interfacial strain-induced self-organization in semiconductor dielectric gate stacks. II. Strain-relief at internal dielectric interfaces between SiO2 and alternative gate dielectrics, J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 22, 2097 (2002)
G. Seguini, E. Bonera, S. Spiga, G. Scarel, M. Fanciulli: Energy-band diagram of metal/Lu203/silicon structures, Appl. Phys. Lett. 85, 5316 (2004)
J. Dabrowski, V. Zavodinsky, A. Fleszar: Pseudopotential study of PrO2 and HfO2 in fluorite phase, Microelectron. Rel. 41, 1093 (2001)
L. Hedin: On the correlation effects in electron spectroscopies and the GW approximation, J. Phys. Condens. Matter 11, R489 (1999)
J. Robertson: Electronic structure and band-offsets of high-dielectric-constant gate oxides, MRS Bull. 27, 217 (2002)
V. V. Afanas'ev, A. Stesmans, F. Chen, X. Shi, S. A. Campbell: Internal photoemission of electrons and holes from (100)Si into HfO2, Appl. Phys. Lett. 81, 1053 (2002)
H. J. Osten, J. P. Liu, H. J. Müssig: Band gap and band discontinuities at crystalline Pr2O3/Si(001) heterojunctions, Appl. Phys. Lett. 80, 297 (2002)
Y. Nishikawa, T. Yamaguchi, M. Yoshiki, H. Satake, N. Fukushima: Interfacial properties of single crystalline CeO2 high-gate dielectrics directly grown on Si(111), Appl. Phys. Lett. 81, 4386 (2002)
V. A. Rozhkov, A. Y. Trusova: Energy barriers at the interfaces in the MIS system Me–Yb2O3–Si, Tech. Phys. 44, 404 (1999)
T. Hattori, T. Yoshida, T. Shiraishi, K. Takahashi, H. Nohira, S. Joumori, K. Nakajima, M. Suzuki, K. Kimura, I. Kashiwagi, C. Ohshima, S. Ohmi, H. Iwai: Composition, chemical structure, and electronic band structure of rare earth oxide/Si(100) interfacial transition layer, Microel. Eng. 72, 283 (2004)
E. Bonera, G. Scarel, M. Fanciulli, P. Delugas, V. Fiorentini: Dielectric properties of high-κoxides: Theory and Experiment for Lu2O3, Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 27602 (2005)
G. V. Samsonov, I. Y. Gil'man: Electronic structure and physical properties of the oxides of the lanthanides, Soviet Powder Metallurgy and Metal Ceramics 13, 925 (1974)
P. Delugas, V. Fiorentini: Dielectric properties of the two phases of crystalline lutetium oxide, Microelectron. Rel. 45, 831 (2005)
S. Ohmi, C. Kobayashi, I. Kashiwagi, C. Ohshima, H. Ishiwara, H. Iwai: Characterization of La2O3 and Yb2O3 thin films for high-k gate insulator application, J. Electrochem. Soc. 150, F134 (2003)
H. Yamada, T. Shimizu, A. Kurokawa, K. Ishii, E. Suzuki: MOCVD of high-dielectric-constant lanthanum oxide thin films, J. Electrochem. Soc. 150, G429 (2003)
A. Fissel, H. J. Osten, E. Bugiel: Towards understanding epitaxial growth of alternative high-dielectrics on Si(001): Application to praseodymium oxide, J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 21, 1765 (2003)
K. Kukli, M. Ritala, T. Pilvi, T. Sajavaara, M. Leskelä, A. C. Jones, H. C. Aspinall, D. G. Gilmer, P. J. Tobin: Evaluation of a praseodymium precursor for atomic layer deposition of oxide dielectric films, Chem. Mater. 16, 5162 (2004)
L. Tye, N. A. El-Masry, T. Chikyow, P. McLarty, S. M. Bedair: Electrical characteristics of epitaxial CeO2 on Si(111), Appl. Phys. Lett. 65, 3081 (1994)
T. R. Griffiths, M. J. Davies, H. V. S. A. Hubbard: Spectroscopic studies on single crystals having the fluorite lattics, J. Chem. Soc. Faraday Trans. II 4, 765 (1976)
A. A. Dakhel: Characterisation of Nd2O3 thick gate dielectric for silicon, Phys. Stat. Sol. (a) 201, 745 (2004)
J. Päiväsaari, M. Putkonen, L. Niinistö: A comparative study on lanthanide oxide thin films grown by atomic layer deposition, Thin Solid Films 472, 275 (2005)
A. A. Dakhel: Dielectric and optical properties of samarium oxide thin films, J. All. Comp. 365, 233 (2004)
P. Watcher: Europium Chalcogenides: EuO, EuS, EuSe, and EuTe, in K. A. Gschneider, Jr., L. Eyring (Eds.): Handbook on the Physics and Chemistry of Rare Earths
J. Kwo, M. Hong, B. Busch, D. A. Muller, Y. J. Chabal, A. R. Kortan, J. P. Mannaerts, B. Yang, P. Ye, H. Grossmann, A. M. Sergent, K. K. Ng, J. Bude, W. H. Schulte, E. Garfunkel, T. Gustafsson: International conference on molecular beam epitaxy (cat. no. 02ex607), in (2002) p. 47
D. Landheer, J. A. Gupta, G. I. Sproule, J. P. McCaffrey, M. J. Graham, K.-C. Yang, Z.-H. Lu, W. N. Lennard: Characterization of Gd2O3 films deposited on Si(100) by electron-beam evaporation, J. Electrochem. Soc. 148, G29 (2001)
M. P. Singh, C. S. Thakur, K. Shalini, S. Banerjee, N. Bhat, S. A. Shivashankar: J. Appl. Phys. 96, 5631 (2004)
V. Mikhelashvili, G. Eisenstein, F. Edelman, R. Brener, N. Zakharov, P. Werner: Structural and electrical properties of electron beam gun evaporated Er2O3 insulator thin films, J. Appl. Phys. 95, 613 (2004)
T. Zdanovicz, L. Zdanowicz: Preparation and some electrical properties of thulium oxide films, Thin Solid Films 58, 390 (1979)
S. Ohmi, M. Takeda, H. Ishiwara, H. Iwai: Electrical characteristics for Lu2O3 thin films fabricated by e-beam deposition method, J. Electrochem. Soc. 151, G279 (2004)
R. D. Shannon: Dielectric polarizabilities of ions in oxides and fluorides, J. Appl. Phys. 73, 348 (1993)
S. Jeon, H. Hwang: Effect of hygroscopic nature on the electrical characteristics of lanthanide oxides (Pr2O3, Sm2O3, Gd2O3, and Dy2O3), J. Appl. Phys. 93, 6393 (2003)
B. B. Van Aken, T. T. M. Palstra: Influence of magnetic on ferroelectric ordering in LuMnO3, Phys. Rev. B 69, 134113 (2004)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Rights and permissions
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Scarel, G., Svane, A., Fanciulli, M. Scientific and Technological Issues Related to Rare Earth Oxides: An Introduction. In: Fanciulli, M., Scarel, G. (eds) Rare Earth Oxide Thin Films. Topics in Applied Physics, vol 106. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg . https://doi.org/10.1007/11499893_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/11499893_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-35796-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-35797-1
eBook Packages: Physics and AstronomyPhysics and Astronomy (R0)