Plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition and characterization of high-permittivity hafnium and zirconium silicate films

Deposition of hafnium silicate films with various hafnium contents was tried by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition using tetraethoxysilane and a hafnium alkoxide. From x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, the deposited films are confirmed to be silicate with Hf-O-Si bonds but without any Hf-Si bonds. The permittivity calculated from the capacitance of the accumulation layer increases monotonically with an increase in the hafnium content, whereas the optical band gap energy estimated from vacuum ultraviolet absorption spectra decreases. Similar results were obtained from zirconium silicate films deposited using tetraethoxysilane and a zirconium alkoxide. If we compare the films with the same hafnium or zirconium content, the hafnium silicate exhibits a higher permittivity and a larger band gap energy than the zirconium silicate.