Document Type

Article

Publication Date

March 2016

Publication Title

Engineering

Volume

1

Issue Number

3

First Page

372

Last Page

377

DOI

10.15302/J-ENG-2015052

ISSN

2095-8099

Keywords

high-mobility device, high-κ/III-V interface, interfacial gap states, first-principle calculations

Disciplines

Materials Science and Engineering

Abstract

Given the demand for constantly scaling microelectronic devices to ever smaller dimensions, a SiO2 gate dielectric was substituted with a higher dielectric-constant material, Hf(Zr)O2, in order to minimize current leakage through dielectric thin film. However, upon interfacing with high dielectric constant (high-κ) dielectrics, the electron mobility in the conventional Si channel degrades due to Coulomb scattering, surface-roughness scattering, remote-phonon scattering, and dielectric-charge trapping. III-V and Ge are two promising candidates with superior mobility over Si. Nevertheless, Hf(Zr)O2/III-V(Ge) has much more complicated interface bonding than Si-based interfaces. Successful fabrication of a high-quality device critically depends on understanding and engineering the bonding configurations at Hf(Zr)O2/III-V(Ge) interfaces for the optimal design of device interfaces. Thus, an accurate atomic insight into the interface bonding and mechanism of interface gap states formation becomes essential. Here, we utilize first-principle calculations to investigate the interface between HfO2 and GaAs. Our study shows that As−As dimer bonding, Ga partial oxidation (between 3+ and 1+) and Ga− dangling bonds constitute the major contributions to gap states. These findings provide insightful guidance for optimum interface passivation.

Comments

SJSU users: Use the following link to login and access the article via SJSU databases.This article was published in Engineering, volume 1, issue 3, 2016, and can also be found online here.

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