Structural and electrical analysis of the atomic layer deposition of HfO2/n-In0.53Ga0.47As capacitors with and without an Al2O3 interface control layer

High mobility III-V substrates with high-k oxides are required for device scaling without loss of channel mobility. Interest has focused on the self-cleaning effect on selected III-V substrates during atomic layer deposition of Al2O3. A thin (similar to 1 nm) Al2O3 interface control layer is deposited on In0.53Ga0.47As prior to HfO2 growth, providing the benefit of self-cleaning and improving the interface quality by reducing interface state defect densities by similar to 50% while maintaining scaling trends. Significant reductions in leakage current density and increased breakdown voltage are found, indicative of a band structure improvement due to the reduction/removal of the In0.53Ga0.47As native oxides. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3473773]