“…The high working pressure of this non-conventional system (three orders of magnitude above conventional sputtering systems) prevents damaging the semiconductor surface due to the low thermalizing length of the particles: at a pressure of 0.5 mbar, the mean free path of the sputtered particles, between 1-3 mm, is much smaller than the target-substrate distance, ∼2.5 cm. Our group has previously used this system to deposit several high κ dielectrics from oxide targets: TiO 2 [19], HfO 2 [20], Sc 2 O 3 [21], Gd 2 O 3 [22] and also, ternary oxides as GdScO 3 [23]. The novelty of the Gd 2 O 3 deposition used in this work follows a work reported by Hoshino et al [24] and consists in the growth of the dielectric film from a metallic Gd target by a two-step process: firstly we deposited a thin film of Gd and then performed, without breaking the vacuum, an Ar/O 2 plasma exposure in order to oxidize the Gd layer.…”