Sub-Pico-Second Hole Generation Lifetime in Thin Film IGZO Sputtered and Annealed on P-Silicon Substrate

Indium-gallium-zinc-oxide (IGZO) sputtered and annealed in the absence of oxygen shows large oxygen vacancy concentration leading to n-type doping of the thin film. However, because of low intrinsic carrier concentration minority carrier (hole) concentration remains weak. Thus, measurement of thermal hole generation lifetime in unipolar IGZO is challenging. In this work, utilizing the charge transient of an appropriately biased depleted HfO
₂
/IGZO thin film MOS capacitor fabricated on a p-silicon substrate, we extracted hole thermal generation lifetime of IGZO. The measured lifetime was found between 0.62-0.064 ps whence IGZO film received 400 °C to 700 °C anneal treatments followed by its direct sputtering on p-silicon substrate. Further, a morphology analysis of the IGZO was presented. Difference in the lifetime which occurred due to amorphous to the nano-crystalline transition of the IGZO thin film with increased anneal temperature was furthermore validated through XRD, SEM and AFM measurements. Hole capture cross-sections as we obtained from surface generation velocities at the IGZO/HfO
₂
interface and energy distributions of interface state density were found in agreement, which indirectly demonstrates the accuracy of the measured hole generation lifetime employing the transient capacitance extrapolation, since under the steady state condition hole generation through the interface states of IGZO/HfO
₂
tends to balance its bulk (IGZO) counterpart