Properties of HfO2/ultrathin SiO2/Si structures and their comparison with Si MOS structures passivated in KCN solution

Electrical, optical and partly structural properties are investigated on very thin ALD HfO2/ultrathin NAOS SiO2/n-type Si structures. An ALD layer was deposited at 250 °C and it contains amorphous and crystalline-probably monoclinic HfO2 phases. HfO2 films with both types of structural phases were not stable if thermal treatment above 200 °C was applied. On as- prepared samples, deep interface traps with activation energy of ΔW = 0.23 eV have been determined. After annealing of the structure at 200 °C, the traps were partly transformed and a mid-gap level ΔW = 0.49 eV was detected. FTIR and AFM measurements confirmed presence of HfO2 monoclinic phase in the HfO2 films. On the other side, the density of interface defect states of the structure decreased from approx. 1012 eV−1 cm−2 to 1011 eV−1 cm−2 after low temperature annealing of the reference structure. The results are compared with very similar (almost identical) development of interface defect states on the very thin thermal SiO2/Si structure before and after passivation in a 0.1 M KCN methanol solution.PACS: 78.55.Qr; 78.66.Jg; 81.16.Pr; 85.40Ls