Interdependence of structural and electrical properties in tantalum/tantalum oxide multilayers

Dc reactive sputtering was used to deposit tantalum metal/oxide periodic nanometric multilayers using the artful technique namely, the reactive gas pulsing process (RGPP). Different pulsing periods were used for each deposition to produce metal-oxide periodic alternations included between 5 and 80 nm. Structure, crystallinity and chemical composition of these films were systematically investigated by Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and Energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy techniques. Moreover, electrical properties were also studied by the van der Pauw technique.

► Dc reactive sputtering was implemented with the reactive gas pulsing process. ► Structural analyses combination allowed determining the different phases in each multilayer. ► HRTEM pointed out the dependence between electrical properties and nanometric and periodic αTa/a-Ta2O5 multilayers.