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Properties of thin yttrium oxide dielectric films.

University of British Columbia

A study has been made of the properties of thin yttrium oxide dielectric films prepared by the electron beam evaporation of high purity Y₂O₃ powder. Films deposited on freshly cleaved NaCl crystals and on polished n-type silicon were examined in the electron microscope. The specimens were found to be polycrystalline, with a crystal size of the order of 100 Å. The structure was found to be essentially the same as found for bulk Y₂O₃. D.C. conduction measurements were made on films of various thicknesses. The characteristics were found to be bulk-limited, with the conductivity decreasing at lower pressures. An activation energy of 0.6 eV was found. The conduction mechanism was believed to be Poole-Frenkel emission of electrons from donor centers into the Y₂O₃ conduction band. The donor centers were believed to be interstitial yttrium atoms rather than oxygen vacancies because of the pressure dependence observed in conductivity. Step response measurements were made, and the results explained on the basis of a loss peak with a most probable relaxation time of 200 seconds. The relaxation of oxygen atoms dissolved in the anion defective Y₂O₃ lattice was assumed to be the mechanism. The results of step response and A.C. bridge loss measurements indicated that different relaxation mechanisms are dominant in different frequency ranges. Internal photoemission measurements were made on Al-Y₂O₃-Al sandwiches. The energy barrier between the electrodes was found to be trapezoidal, with barrier heights of 3.14 and 3.72 eV.

Text

2011-04-18

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/33748

Electrical and Computer Engineering

University of British Columbia

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