High-Throughput Screening of Amorphous $\hbox{Y}_{2} \hbox{O}_{3}$–$\hbox{TiO}_{2}\hbox{/}\hbox{SiO}_{2}$ Higher $\kappa$ Gate Dielectric Layers

In this paper, an approach using native SiO
₂
to make amorphous higher dielectric constant films based on the Y
₂
O
₃
-TiO
₂
/SiO
₂
/Si compositional spread libraries by combinatorial pulsed laser deposition is reported. The key feature of the experiment is that combinatorial methodology is used to quickly screen the potential high-dielectric-constant films out of a large composition parameter space. Scanning X-ray microdiffractometry and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy results show that the TiO
₂
-rich end is amorphous after 500°C anneal. A wide composition range near the TiO
₂
-rich end, exhibiting amorphousness, dielectric constants of 30-50, and reasonably low
J
_L
(<; 10
^-5
A/cm
²
), may be of great interest for a gate-last process flow for advanced gate stacks.