Electrical characteristics and thermal stability of HfO2 metal-oxide-semiconductor capacitors fabricated on clean reconstructed GaSb surfaces

HfO2/GaSb interfaces fabricated by high-vacuum HfO2 deposition on clean reconstructed GaSb surfaces were examined to explore a thermally stable GaSb metal-oxide-semiconductor structure with low interface-state density (D-it). Interface Sb-O bonds were electrically and thermally unstable, and post-metallization annealing at temperatures higher than 200 degrees C was required to stabilize the HfO2/GaSb interfaces. However, the annealing led to large D-it in the upper-half band gap. We propose that the decomposition products that are associated with elemental Sb atoms act as interface states, since a clear correlation between the D-it and the Sb coverage on the initial GaSb surfaces was observed. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.