Electrical characteristics of novel hafnium oxide film

Hafnium oxide film grown by the direct sputtering of a hafnium target in oxygen ambient was investigated. XPS results showed that the interface between the hafnium oxide and silicon substrate was bad. The electrical characteristics of hafnium oxide and its interface layer were studied in detail by capacitance-voltage (C-V) and current-voltage (I-V) measurements. It was observed that the interface layer contains charge traps that affected the device operation.