Structural and electrical properties of CeO/sub 2//Si with nitrided interfacial layer by nitrogen ion beam bombardment

The effects of nitrided interfacial layer between CeO/sub 2/-Si on the interfacial properties are studied. The process of nitrogen ion beam bombardment (NIBB) was used to form the nitride dielectric-Si interface. The CeO/sub 2/ high-k dielectric films were grown on Si[100] substrates by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) and the capacitors with Pt/CeO/sub 2//Si structure were fabricated. The atomic force microscopy (AFM), x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), capacitance-voltage (C-V), and current-voltage (I-V) methods were used to study the interfacial characteristics of the samples. The results showed that a SiN/sub x/O/sub y/ layer was formed on Si surface by the NIBB process. The nitride layer between CeO/sub 2/ and Si can suppress the further formation of interfacial layer between CeO/sub 2/ and Si, which is helpful to improve the structural and electrical characteristics of CeO/sub 2/-Si interface.