Influence of Radio-Frequecy Power on Structural and Electrical Properties of Sputtered Hafnium Dioxide Thin Films

Hafnium dioxide (HfO₂) thin films are prepared by rf magnetron sputtering. The influences of rf power on the structure, chemical states and electrical properties of the thin films were investigated through x-ray diffraction, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, capacitance-voltage and leakage current density-voltage measurement and UV-VIS spectrophotometry. The results show that the HfO₂ thin films have a mixed structure of amorphous and poly crystalline phases. With increasing rf power, the crystallinity is enhanced and the crystallite size of the thin films is increased. The oxidation of Hf atoms is improved with increasing rf power for the HfO₂ thin films. The flat band shift, oxide charge density and leakage current density of the thin films all decrease as the rf power increases from 50 to 110 W, and then increase as the rf power is increased to 140 W. The band gap energy is smaller for the thin film deposited at 110 W.