Microstructure and optical properties of ultra-thin zirconia films prepared by nitrogen-assisted reactive magnetron sputtering

Abstract

High-k ZrO2 films were prepared by nitrogen-assisted direct current reactive magnetron sputtering on n-type silicon (100). The microstructure and optical properties in relation to thermal budgets were investigated. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was used to determine the chemical states. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) analysis indicated that the annealing temperature had significant effects on surface roughness. By using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), the resistance to the interface growth after the additional thermal budgets was observed. The thickness and pseudodielectric constants of ZrO2 thin films correlating to annealing temperature were determined by Tauc–Lorentz spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) dispersion model fitting. Optical band gaps (Eg) were also obtained based on the extracted absorption edge.

Structural and optical characterization of ZrO2 thin films grown on silicon and quartz substrates

“…The results of the band gap energy are in agreement with the XRD results. The band gap value of the ZrO 2 obtained in the present work closely matches with earlier reports [11,22,23]. …”

Optical Properties of Nano-Crystalline Zirconia Thin Films Prepared at Different Post-Oxidation Annealing Times

“…In recent years, zirconium dioxide (zirconia, ZrO 2 ) thin films, owing to excellent optical, thermal, mechanical and electrical properties [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10], have been widely used in diverse fields, such as optical filters, anti-corrosion, protective and thermal barriers, gas sensor, anti-reflection coating [8,9] and as insulators in microelectronic devices [10]. Depending on deposition technique, its parameters and heat treatment, ZrO 2 films can exist in various phases, monoclinic, tetragonal, cubic and amorphous [3,8,9].…”

Ellipsometric study of a-Be3N2 thin films prepared by radio frequency magnetron sputtering

“…In Ref. [11], Song et al and Zhu et al [12] found that the rms is approximately half of the surface roughness layer thickness in spectroscopic ellipsometry. In addition, the obtained values of the surface roughnesses are very small compared with the measured film thickness which are listed in Table 2.…”

“…The data of the crystalline structure was taken from Refs. [3,12]. of a-Be 3 N 2 thin films are surprisingly limited.…”