Effect of Oxidation Temperature on Magnetron Sputtered Zirconium Niobium Films

Abstract

Thermal treatment was performed on DC magnetron sputtered zirconium niobium (Zr0.7Nb0.3) films in the oxygen-enriched environment at different temperatures in the range 400 – 700ºC to transform from Zr0.7Nb0.3 to Zr0.7Nb0.3O2 films. The films oxidized at 700ºC were of tetragonal Zr0.7Nb0.3O2 with a crystallite size of 22 nm. There was a significant increase in the optical transmittance of the Zr0.7Nb0.3O2 films from 75% to 90%, and eventually, the optical band gap also increased from 4.32 to 4.61 eV by increasing the oxidation temperature from 400 to 700 ºC, respectively. The metal-oxide-semiconductor stacks of Al/Zr0.7Nb0.3O2/p-Si showed higher dielectric constant values with improved interface quality at oxide/Si stack upon thermal oxidation at 700ºC with relatively lower leakage currents.