Citation: Alberto Debernardi. Ab initio calculation of band alignment of epitaxial La2O3 on Si(111) substrate[J]. AIMS Materials Science, 2015, 2(3): 279-293. doi: 10.3934/matersci.2015.3.279
[1] | Larysa Khomenkova, Mykola Baran, Jedrzej Jedrzejewski, Caroline Bonafos, Vincent Paillard, Yevgen Venger, Isaac Balberg, Nadiia Korsunska . Silicon nanocrystals embedded in oxide films grown by magnetron sputtering. AIMS Materials Science, 2016, 3(2): 538-561. doi: 10.3934/matersci.2016.2.538 |
[2] | David Jishiashvili, Zeinab Shiolashvili, Archil Chirakadze, Alexander Jishiashvili, Nino Makhatadze, Kakha Gorgadze . Development of low temperature technology for the growth of wide band gap semiconductor nanowires. AIMS Materials Science, 2016, 3(2): 470-485. doi: 10.3934/matersci.2016.2.470 |
[3] | Na Ta, Lijun Zhang, Qin Li . Research on the oxidation sequence of Ni-Al-Pt alloy by combining experiments and thermodynamic calculations. AIMS Materials Science, 2024, 11(6): 1083-1095. doi: 10.3934/matersci.2024052 |
[4] | Iryna Markevich, Tetyana Stara, Larysa Khomenkova, Volodymyr Kushnirenko, Lyudmyla Borkovska . Photoluminescence engineering in polycrystalline ZnO and ZnO-based compounds. AIMS Materials Science, 2016, 3(2): 508-524. doi: 10.3934/matersci.2016.2.508 |
[5] | Mihaela Girtan, Laura Hrostea, Mihaela Boclinca, Beatrice Negulescu . Study of oxide/metal/oxide thin films for transparent electronics and solar cells applications by spectroscopic ellipsometry. AIMS Materials Science, 2017, 4(3): 594-613. doi: 10.3934/matersci.2017.3.594 |
[6] | Z. Aboub, B. Daoudi, A. Boukraa . Theoretical study of Ni doping SrTiO3 using a density functional theory. AIMS Materials Science, 2020, 7(6): 902-910. doi: 10.3934/matersci.2020.6.902 |
[7] | Lucangelo Dimesso, Michael Wussler, Thomas Mayer, Eric Mankel, Wolfram Jaegermann . Inorganic alkali lead iodide semiconducting APbI3 (A = Li, Na, K, Cs) and NH4PbI3 films prepared from solution: Structure, morphology, and electronic structure. AIMS Materials Science, 2016, 3(3): 737-755. doi: 10.3934/matersci.2016.3.737 |
[8] | Iñaki López, Teresa Cebriano, Pedro Hidalgo, Emilio Nogales, Javier Piqueras, Bianchi Méndez . The role of impurities in the shape, structure and physical properties of semiconducting oxide nanostructures grown by thermal evaporation. AIMS Materials Science, 2016, 3(2): 425-433. doi: 10.3934/matersci.2016.2.425 |
[9] | Dmitriy V. Likhachev, Natalia Malkova, Leonid Poslavsky . Quantitative characterization and modeling of sub-bandgap absorption features in thin oxide films from spectroscopic ellipsometry data. AIMS Materials Science, 2015, 2(4): 356-368. doi: 10.3934/matersci.2015.4.356 |
[10] | Habibur Rahman, Altab Hossain, Mohammad Ali . Experimental investigation on cooling tower performance with Al2O3, ZnO and Ti2O3 based nanofluids. AIMS Materials Science, 2024, 11(5): 935-949. doi: 10.3934/matersci.2024045 |
Moore's law, predicting the continue scaling down of microelectronic devices to smaller and smaller sizes, has encountered a serious limitation in the replacement of conventional silicon dioxide (SiO2) that is used as gate insulator. In fact, when the oxide thickness is reduced to just few atomic layers, electrons can tunnel directly through the SiO2 film, preventing the device to work. The ideal candidate to substitute SiO2 would be an oxide with a high dielectric constant (high-κ); the oxide must have a high-enough band-offset with the substrate to maintain a small electric current in the gate oxide (leakage). Further, the interface between the oxide and silicon must be free of any active defect causing electronic states in the semiconductor band-gap, which would degrade the electronic properties of the device. Among the possible candidates to substitute SiO2 in advanced complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) devices, hexagonal La2O3 has recently attracted considerable interest for the high value of the dielectric constant of this phase (measurements gives κ = 27±3, [1,2] in agreement with first principles value of κ = 26[1]) when compared to the experimental value of the dielectric constant of the cubic La2O3 (16±2)[1], or to the values of dielectric constant of different high-κ oxides, such as ZrO2 (κ ~ 20)[3] or HfO2 (κ ~ 14)[3]. Electronic and vibrational properties of hexagonal La2O3 can reliably be computed ab initio[1], predicting for the bulk dielectric constant an anisotropy that is less than 1%.[1] The results of Ref. [1] would make hexagonal La2O3 a promising material for the future generation of ultra-scaled CMOS devices, provided that the conduction band offset with the Si substrate would be large enough to produce a negligible leakage through the gate oxide.
The latter problem is one of the targets of the present article. By means of state-of-the-art density functional simulations we have computed the band offset of hexagonal La2O3 epitaxially grown on Si(111) substrate. At variance with the conventional (001) orientation, [4] the Si(111) oriented substrate has in-plane lattice parameter similar to the one of the hexagonal La2O3, allowing epitaxial growth and a defect free interface. In industrial processes employing Silicon as a substrate, the (001) orientation of the substrate is usually preferred with respect to the (111) orientation, because the latter forms an interface with SiO2 that presents a density of defect which is about four time the density of defects formed at the SiO2/Si(001) interface (see, e. g., Ref. [4]). As it will be shown in the present work, an oxide almost lattice matched with the Si(111) substrate can growth epitaxially without forming any active defect in the gap.
An accurate engineering of the junction between the Silicon substrate and the epitaxial high-κ oxide is required to minimize the interface trap density and the carrier scattering, and thus to obtain reliable, high performance devices. For this reason a considerable effort has been devoted to grow epitaxial, sharp, and well-ordered Silicon/high-κ oxides interfaces. In particular, thin crystal films of Praseodymia and of Ceria, two high-k oxides, has been grown epitaxially on Si substrate (111) oriented, by Cl passivation of the Si surface.[5,6] The epitaxial growth of La2O3 film on Silicon substrates (111) oriented has been recently reported.[7,8,9] The experimental data regarding the crystal structure of La2O3 epitaxial layers are quite intriguing: for film thickness lower than 2 nm the cubic (bixbyite) phase is measured, [8,9] while for larger oxide thickness the hexagonal phase, having La2O3(0001) || Si(111), is observed.[7,9]
Our results predict that Lanthanum sesquioxide film can grow epitaxially up a to thickness of several decades of nanometers. We computed for the La2O3(0001)/Si(111) junction a valence band offset of ~ 1.6 eV, and a conduction band offset of ~ 1.7 eV (remarkably higher than the minimum value of 1.0 eV required for the next generation CMOS transistors, [10] as devised in the international technology road-map for semiconductors[11]), suggesting the capability of hexagonal La2O3 to be used as gate oxide in future ultra scaled-devices. Further, we will show that it is possible to modify the band-offset of about 0.5 eV (i. e. ~ 30%) without creating electronic states in the semiconductor band-gap by δ-doping the interface with S or Se monolayer.
Our simulations are obtained, within the density functional theory, by plane-wave pseudopotential techniques, with generalized gradient approximation of Perdew, Burke and Ernzerhof[12] as implemented in the PWSCF package (Plane-Wave Self-Consistent Field).[13] We use state of the art ultra-soft [14,15] pseudopotential in the separable form introduced by Kleinmann and Bylander[16]; O, S, and Se pseudopotentials have 6 valence electrons, while Si and La pseudopotentials have 4 and 11 valence electrons, respectively. Integration of electronic states is performed by means of special point techniques, by using a (12, 12, 1) Monkhorst-Pack grid [17] for the super-cell describing the interface. The valence electronic density was expanded on a plane-wave basis set with a kinetic energy cutoff of 50 Ry, while for the augmentation density of ultra-soft pseudopotentials a cutoff of 400 Ry was used.
At variance with estimations obtained with the so-called metal-induced gap states model[18,19] based on the complex bulk band structures, we calculate the band offset by simulating a Si/La2O3 junction by the super-cell techniques. For a given stacking sequence of atomic planes at the interface, this method accounts the atomic relaxation and the structural relaxation of epitaxial layers along the growth direction. Further, it provides reliable predictions of electronic properties of the heterostructure (see e.g. Ref. [20,21] and references therein).
We consider epitaxial La2O3 (0001)-oriented on Si(111) substrate. In fact, with this orientation the (111) plane of silicon (diamond structure) has a triangular surface lattice having the same symmetry of the La2O3 (0001) plane; further the resulting in-plane (i.e. parallel to the surface) lattice parameter of La2O3, ahex, presents a small lattice mismatch (about ~ 2% according to the experimental values reported below) with the lattice parameter of the Si substrate, suggesting the possibility of epitaxial grown with this orientation.[22] The dielectric constants are calculated with the same method and technicalities used in Ref. [1], the interested reader can refer to this work an to the references therein for further computational details.
Lanthanum sesquioxide, La2O3, is and hexagonal crystal (space group C3m) with lattice parameters ahex = 3:933 Å [1] and chex = 6:147 Å[1]. Lanthanum atoms are in the (2d) position ±(1=2 2=3 u) (as usual, atomic positions are expressed in crystal units) with u ≡ uLa = 0:245;[23] one oxygen is placed in the (1a) position 000, while the other two oxygens are in the (2d) position with u ≡ uO = 0:645.[23]
In our simulation the bulk lattice parameters are computed by imposing the vanishing of the stress in the bulk unit cell. We obtain for the hexagonal La2O3 the following lattice parameters: ahex = 3:895 Å, chex = 6:157 Å, uLa = 0:2502, and uO = 0:6438, that well reproduce the experimental data. The computed lattice parameter of Si is (the experimental data taken from literature are reported in parenthesis): afcc = 5:468 (5.431)[23] Å; the latter value corresponds to a lattice parameter of the Si(111) surface ahex = 3:867 (3.840)[23] Å, giving a theoretical lattice mismatch of less than ~ 1%, that satisfactory reproduces the experimental fact that -with the considered orientation - substrate and oxide have similar in-plane lattice parameters. The mismatch produces a small strain of the epitaxial oxide, with a computed in-plane stress of ~ 16 Kbar; along the growth direction the lattice parameter of the epitaxial oxide is free to relax, and the calculated lattice constant, chexepi = 6:194 Å, is only a fraction of percent larger than the bulk theoretical value reported above. As can be noticed from Fig.1,the strain due to epitaxial growth of La2O3 does not substantially affects the band structure of hexagonal La2O3 and the computed band-gap slightly increases from the bulk value of 3.84 eV to 3.89 eV of the strained structure.
The experimental band-gap of bulk hexagonal La2O3 is 5.5 eV, [24] while the experimental band-gap of bulk Silicon is 1.11 eV [25]. Our computed Silicon band-gap is 0.614 eV, in agreement with the results present in literature which are obtained by the same (or by a similar) technique. It is well known that, within the density functional theory, the computed band-gaps are usually underestimated with respect to the experimental values (for further discussion and references see e.g. Ref.[26]).
The dielectric constants are also modified in the strained structure. By taking, as usual, the z-axis along the growth direction we obtain for the dielectric constants of hexagonal epitaxial La2O3 (in parenthesis the corresponding bulk values): κxx = κyy = 24:5 (26.2), and κzz = 28:0 (26.0). According to our results, in the epitaxial oxide the dielectric constant along the growth direction (that in a CMOS transistor is the component of the dielectric tensor having technological interest) increases by ~ 8% with respect to the bulk value, producing an improvement in the dielectric properties of La2O3 film.
We simulate the La2O3(0001)/Si(111) interface by a hexagonal periodically repeated supercell containing 55 atoms (24 Si, 12 La, and 19 O) with the basis vectors, a, oriented along the primitive lattice vector of Si(111) plan. The length of the basis a=aSi√2, where aSi = 3:866 Å, is kept fixed to the theoretical lattice parameter of bulk-Si. The height c = 75:88 Å of the super-cell was obtained relaxing the structure along the growth direction to have a negligible stress along this direction (< 4 Kbar after the relaxation procedure).
We consider an oxygen terminated interface, i.e. along the growth direction the atomicplane sequence is: ...Si, O, La, O, O, La, ..., as displayed in Fig.2,with the O at the interface corresponding to the (1a) position of La2O3 to ensure the stoichiometry of the interface; according to recipe proposed in Ref. [27] this type of termination produces an interface free of defects in the gap, as can be noticed by looking to the top panel of Fig.3 where we display the total density of states (TDOS) of the super-cell structure in an energy range corresponding to the Si band-gap (the zero of the energy corresponds to the top of the valence band of Si). In the top panel of Fig.3 we also display the projected density of states (PDOS) on the atomic orbitals of the O atom at the interface; in the energy range considered, only energy levels corresponding to p-atomic orbitals have non-vanishing density of states (DOS); in the panel, the p-states PDOS is displayed as a red dashed line, with double peaks structures in the PDOS at energy 4 ÷ 5 eV lower that the top of the valence band.
The band alignment is obtained by computing the average of the electron density of the heterostructure La2O3(0001)/Si(111), according to the procedure exposed in Ref. [28]. The resulting electrostatic potential is displayed in Fig.4 as a (blue) dashed line, giving the potential lineup of the two materials. The band structure of the bulk semiconductor and of the strained (bulk) oxides are then added to this averaged potential to obtain the band-offset of the junction. The scheme of the band alignment is displayed in Fig.5. The computed band-offset between the semiconductor and the oxide are ΔEvbo = 1:58 eV for the valence band-offset, and ΔEcbo = 1:68 eV for the conduction band-offset. The former (latter) result estimates the potential barrier that an hole (electron) in the Si valence (conduction) band maximum (minima) has to overcome to be injected into the gate oxide, thus producing a leakage current.
As mentioned at the end of Section 3 the band-gaps of bulk compounds evaluated by density functional theory are usually underestimated with respect to the corresponding experimental values. However, since in the present case this fact is expected to produce an underestimation of the computed conduction band offset, it does not affect (but it rather enforces) one of the main result of the present work, namely that, according to our calculations, the conduction band offset is large enough to prevent leakage current.
According to this results, hexagonal La2O3 presents a band offset with Si suitable for the use as gate oxide in the next generation CMOS devices.
To provide further evidence of the latter assertion, we consider two recipes to improve the estimation of band-offset by taking into account the experimental values of band-gaps of the bulk materials constituting the junction. In the first recipe, we correct ΔEcbo by taking the value of valence band-offset form our ab initio simulation and then, instead of using the theoretical band-gaps as usually done in the standard fully ab initio method described above, we use the experimental values of bulk Silicon (1.11 eV) and of Lanthanum sesquioxide band-gaps. In the following estimation we use a La2O3 band-gap equal to 5.57 eV, to take into account the small increase (~ 1:3%) of the band-gap, with respect to bulk free-standing value, predicted by our simulation for epitaxial La2O3 (however, the corresponding values of ΔEcbo by taking the bulk experimental value of 5.5 eV, can be straightforward computed). We obtain for the conduction band-offset ΔEcbo = 2:89 eV.
If we compare these results for ΔEcbo with the experimental value of ΔEcbo = 2:3 eV reported in Ref. [24], we can notice that the fully ab initio value of ΔEcbo = 1:68 eV underestimates the experimental data of about 27%, as expected according to the above discussion, while the ΔEcbo corrected with experimental bulk band-gaps over-estimates the experimental value of about the same amount (26%). We remark that in the latter recipe only ΔEcbo is corrected on the basis of experimental data, while the valence band-offset remain unchanged.
A better estimation of the band alignment can be obtained with the following recipe, that we propose in the present paper, to correct symmetrically both valence and conduction band offset by taking into account the experimental values of bulk band-gaps of the two materials composing the junction. In this second recipe, that we call the ab initio Fermi energy line-up, we consider, as reference the theoretical line-up of the Fermi energies of the two compounds, Si and La2O3, forming the junction. The Fermi energy is usually defined at absolute zero, and at this temperature it is equal to the electron chemical potential. The Fermi energy of undoped semiconductors or insulators at T=0 K is exactly at the middle of the band-gap.[29]
We take our theoretical value of valence band offset and add to it 1=2 of the theoretical values of bulk band-gaps of the two materials (Silicon and bulk strained hexagonal Lanthanum), to obtain the ab initio line-up of the two Fermi energies; from this reference value, the valence and conduction band-offset are computed by using the experimental values of bulk band-gaps.
With this procedure, that we call ab initio Fermi energy line-up plus experimental bulk band-gaps, we obtain ΔEvbo = 2:17 eV and ΔEcbo = 2:29 eV; the latter result is in perfect agreement with the reported experimental value.
For completeness, we have estimated the critical thickness, tc, that an epitaxial La2O3 film can reach on Si(111). We have calculated tc ab initio, in a similar way as exposed in the work of Fiorentini and Gulleri [30]. In the following we give a brief account of the method we used.
An epitaxial layer of thickness t is energetically favored with respect to the fully relaxed layer when the following inequality is fulfilled:
ESisurf+ELa2O3surf≥Eform+ΔEepi∗t/ts. |
(1) |
The formation energy depends on the growth condition: O-rich favoring oxygen excess, while O-poor favoring oxygen deficit. From a theoretical point of view, this corresponds to fix the chemical potential of the constituents. In our case the chemical potential of Lanthanum, μLa, and of Oxygen, μO, are not independent: O-rich (O-poor) condition means La-poor (La-rich) condition. O-rich (i.e. La-poor) condition corresponds to chose μO equal to the value of the molecular oxygen, μO = μO2 , while La-rich (i.e. O-poor) condition corresponds to chose μLa equal to the value of the La element, computed in the hexagonal structure.
Our results are obtained by taking (hereafter the values of the surface energy are referred to the (1x1) unit cell) the Si surface energy equal to 1.179 eV, value computed by K. D. Brommer et al [32] for the Si (111) surface with 7x7 reconstruction and a La2O3 surface energy equal to 0.559 eV that we estimated for the La2O3(0001) surface by relaxing a slab (with the same cut-off used in the super-cell calculation of the junction) composed of five La2O3 unit layers separated by ~ 4:8 nm of vacuum.
We obtain a critical thickness ranging from tc = 43 nm (La-rich condition) to tc = 172 nm (O-rich condition), according to the arbitrary in the choice of the chemical potential. This means that the oxide layer can grow up to a thickness of decades of nanometers, conserving its epitaxial structure (and, at least in principle, a defect-free interface); a results that can be expected from the fact that the oxide and the substrate have similar lattice parameter. Incidentally, we notice that the film thickness of 6 nm[9] and 20 nm, [7] reported so far in literature for epitaxial La2O3 on Si(111) are compatible with our predictions.
Several compounds have the hexagonal structure of Lanthanum sesquioxide, in particular, two of them, an oxysulfide, La2O2S, and an oxyselenide, La2O2Se, have also a chemical composition similar to La2O3, since O, S and Se are in the same column of the periodic table of elements. In the two former compounds, the S or Se atom replaces the O atom in the (1a) position[23] in the unit cell of La2O3. La2O2S according to first principles calculations [33] is predicted to have an high-κ. Our simulation, gives for La2O2S (the ab initio results computed by Vali[33] are reported in parenthesis): κxx = κyy = 18:1 (15.85), κxx = κyy = 18:1 (15.85), and κzz = 15:8 (15.15). Our computed lattice parameters ahex = 4:03 Å(3.9905), chex = 6:93 Å(6.8391), uLa = 0:2825 (0.28), uO = 0:6266 (0.63), are in good agreement with experimental data [23]: a = 4:0509 Å, c = 6:943 Å, uLa = 0:29, uO = 0:64.
For La2O2Se we computed κxx = κyy = 15:1 and κzz = 12:6, while for the lattice parameters we obtained ahex = 4:071 Å, chex = 7:158 Å, uLa = 0:2910, uO = 0:6222, that well reproduce the experimental data:[23] ahex = 4:070 Å, chex = 7:124 Å.
We re-call that in the stoichiometric interface considered in the present work the O atom placed at the interface corresponds to the (1a) position[23] of the unit cell of hexagonal structure of La2O3, that in La2O2S (La2O2Se) that is occupied by the S (Se) atom. It this therefore quite natural, in order to modify the band-offset of the junction by changing the chemical composition of the interface, to consider a δ-doped interface with with S (Se) substituting the interfacial (1a) O atom, since the (1a) atomic position corresponds to the position already occupied by S (Se) atoms in Lanthanum-oxysulfide (oxyselenide). After atomic relaxation, we have computed the electronic states and the band alignment of S and Se δ-doped interfaces in a similar way as the un-doped one. We display only the results obtained by the standard fully ab initio method. The data corresponding to the correction recipes to adjust the ab initio data with experimental bulk band-gaps (see Section 3.1), can be straightforwardly computed by the interested reader.
We found that for the S-doped interface ΔEvbo = 2:08 eV, and ΔEcbo = 1:18 eV; while for the Se-doped interface ΔEvbo = 2:04 eV and ΔEcbo = 1:24 eV; this means that the valence (conduction) band-offset can be significantly increased (decreased) of about 0.5 eV (i.e. about 30%) by δ-doping the interface with a monolayer of S or of Se.
Remarkably, no impurity states are induced in the gap by δ-doping, as can be noticed by looking to the middle and to the bottom panel of Fig.3,where the TDOS (of the whole super-cell) and the PDOS (of interfacial atoms) are reported for the S and Se δ-doped interface respectively. We take the energy of valence band maximum as the zero of the energy scale. By comparing the PDOS of interfacial S or Se atoms with the PDOS of O atom at the interface of the un-doped structure (top panel of Fig.3), we can notice that, by effect of δ-doping, in the range of energies from -3 eV up to about -1 eV, the PDOS of S and of Se are larger than the corresponding PDOS of interfacial O of un-doped structure; while the double peak structure, present in the PDOS of the un-doped structure at ~ -4.5 eV, almost disappears in S and in Se PDOS.
In the introduction, we mentioned the use of passivating agents (such as Cl or H) on Si(111) surface to promote epitaxial growth of high-κ oxides; the employment of this technique to growth Si(111)/high-κ oxide interfaces, calls for a brief discussion about the possibility to exploit the use of passivating molecules in future experiments to obtain a shift in the band-alignment similar to the one predicted by our simulations for δ-doped heterostructures. For this reason, we brie y summarize the general criteria that have inspired our choice of doping elements.
To prevent leakage in the ultra-scaled devices, the production of interfaces free of spurious electronic states in the band-gap, acting as electrical traps, is a must. To fulfill this demand the doping elements, that we used in the present work to engineer the band offset, were chosen according to the following requirements: i) the dopants should produce in the oxide substitutional defects, and they should have the same oxidation states (they are isovalent) of the element they substitute, to avoid the formation of dangling bonds that can produce electronic levels in the band-gap. ii) the epitaxial layer of the doped oxide should share the crystallographic structure with Lanthanum sesquioxide, where the dopants (S, Se) are placed in a well defined crystallographic position (1a). For perfect interfaces, this reduces, at least in principles, the possibility of chemical disorder, produced by the dopants that randomly occupy substitutional sites of the crystal structure. Instead, as in the case of Lanthanum oxysulfide and Lanthanum oxyselenide, the dopant are energetically favored to place in a pre-determined stacking order, producing a δ-doped interface. This property also discourages the formation of amorphous oxide layer. In fact, the amorphization of epitaxial layer can be expected when one introduce doping elements having coordination number different to the one of O [(1a) Wyckoff position] in La2O3 sesquioxide. S and Se fulfill both requirements and, according to the above results, they produce defect-free interfaces.
In light of recent experimental results reporting that the termination of substrate dangling bonds by Cl strongly favors abrupt Lanthana-Silicon interfaces, [8] and on the basis of our theoretical results, a possible suggestion is to passivate the Silicon (111) surface with molecules like S-Cl2, Se-Cl2 (or S-H2, Se-H2), thus forming Si-S-Cl, Si-Se-Cl (or Si-S-H, Si-Se-H) surface bonds. Presumably, this passivation can provide an element like S (or Se) that can be incorporated in the first layer of Lanthanum sesquioxide, producing Lanthanum oxysulfide (oxyselenide) and an enhancement of valence band offset that can further improve the suppression of leakage currents through gate oxide in ultra-scaled p-channel CMOS devices.
On summary, by means of plane-wave pseudopotential techniques we predicted that high-κ Lanthanum sesquioxide films (0001)-oriented can growth epitaxially on the almost latticematched Si(111) substrate up to a critical thickness of decades on nanometers maintaining a defect free interface. We have computed the valence and conduction band offset of La2O3(0001)/Si(111) heterostructure. In particular, the conduction band offset of the fully ab initio calculation is found to be ~ 1:7 eV. This offset makes this oxide completely suitable to prevent leakage in the forthcoming generation of ultra-scaled CMOS structures. Further, we have shown that it is possible to modify the band-offset of about 30% by δ-doping the interface with S or Se atoms without creating interfacial electronic states in the gap, thus providing a suitable mechanism for the band-offset engineering of the junction. These results make the high-κ Lanthanum sesquioxide an extremely promising candidate as gate oxide in the next-future CMOS nano devices.
We thanks M. Fanciulli for fruitful discussions. We acknowledge the (FP6-2004-IST-NMP-3) Project REALISE (2006-9) for partial funding, and the Consorzio Interuniversitario per le Applicazioni di Supercalcolo Per Universitá e Ricerca (CASPUR) for technical support to computer hardware.
The author declares no con icts of interest in this paper.
[1] | Scarel G, Debernardi A, Tsoutsou D, et al. (2007) Vibrational and electrical properties of hexagonal La2O3 films Appl. Phys. Lett. 91, 102901. ibid. (2007) 91, 189901(E). |
[2] |
Tsoutsou D, Scarel G, Debernardi A, et al. (2008) Infrared spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction studies on the crystallographic evolution of La2O3 films upon annealing. Microelectron Eng 85: 2411-2413. doi: 10.1016/j.mee.2008.09.033
![]() |
[3] | See e.g.: Fanciulli M, Scarel G, editors Rare Earth Oxide Thin Films: Growth, Characterization, and Applications, Topics in Applied Physics 106, Berlin: Springer; 2007. |
[4] | Stesmans A (2002) In uence of interface relaxation on passivation kinetics in H2 of coordination Pb defects at the (111) Si/SiO2 interface revealed by electron spin resonance. J Appl Phys 92: 1317 |
[5] |
Gevers S, Flege JI, Kaemena B, et al. (2010) Improved epitaxy of ultrathin praseodymia films on chlorine passivated Si(111) reducing silicate interface formation. Appl Phys Lett 97: 242901. doi: 10.1063/1.3525175
![]() |
[6] |
Flege JI, Kaemena B, Hocker J, et al. (2014) Ultrathin, epitaxial cerium dioxide on silicon. Appl Phys Lett 104: 131604. doi: 10.1063/1.4870585
![]() |
[7] | Edge LF, Tian W, Vaithyanathan V, et al. Stemmer S, Wang JG, and Kim MJ (2008) Growth and Characterization of Alternative Gate Dielectrics by Molecular-Beam Epitaxy. ECS Transactions 16: 213-227. |
[8] | Flege JI, Kaemena B, Schmidt T, et al. (2014) Epitaxial, well-ordered ceria/lanthana high-k gate dielectrics on silicon. J Vac Sci Technol B 32: 03D124. |
[9] |
Proessdorf A, Niehle M, Hanke M, et al. (2014) Epitaxial polymorphism of La2O3 on Si(111) studied by in situ x-ray diffraction. Appl Phys Lett 105: 021601. doi: 10.1063/1.4890107
![]() |
[10] |
See e.g. Houssa M, Pantisano L, Ragnarsson LA, et al. (2006) Electrical properties of high-k gate dielectrics: Challenges, current issues, and possible solutions. Materials Science and Engineering R 51: 37-85. doi: 10.1016/j.mser.2006.04.001
![]() |
[11] | ITRS Reports and Ordering Information. Available from: http://www.itrs.net |
[12] |
Perdew JP, Burke K, and Ernzerhof M (1996) Generalized Gradient Approximation Made Simple. Phys Rev Lett 77: 3865-3868; ibid. (1997) 78, 1396(E). doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.77.3865
![]() |
[13] |
Giannozzi P, Baroni S, Bonini N, et al. (2009) QUANTUM ESPRESSO: a modular and open-source software project for quantum simulations of materials. J Phys Condens Matter 21: 395502. doi: 10.1088/0953-8984/21/39/395502
![]() |
[14] | Rappe AM, Rabe KM, Kaxiras E, et al.(1990) Optimized pseudopotentials. Phys Rev B 41: 1227-1230. |
[15] |
Vanderbilt D (1985) Optimally smooth norm-conserving pseudopotentials. Phys Rev B 32: 8412-8415. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevB.32.8412
![]() |
[16] |
Kleinman L, and Bylander DM (1982) Efficacious form for model pseudopotentials. Phys Rev Lett 48: 1425-i1428. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.48.1425
![]() |
[17] |
Monkhorst HK, Pack JD (1976) Special points for Brillouin-zone integrations. Phys Rev B 13: 5188-i5192. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevB.13.5188
![]() |
[18] |
Demkov AA,Fonseca LRC, Verret E et al. (2005) Complex band structure and the band alignment problem at the Sihigh-k dielectric interface. Phys Rev B 71: 195306. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevB.71.195306
![]() |
[19] |
Peacock PW, Robertson J (2002) Band offsets and Schottky barrier heights of high dielectric constant oxide. J Appl Phys 92: 4712-4721. doi: 10.1063/1.1506388
![]() |
[20] |
Debernardi A, Peressi M, Baldereschi A (2005) Spin polarization and band alignments at NiMnSb/GaAs interface. Comput Mater Sci 33: 263-268. doi: 10.1016/j.commatsci.2004.12.048
![]() |
[21] |
Debernardi A, Peressi M, Baldereschi A (2003) Structural and Electronic properties of NiMnSb Heusler compound and its interface with GaAs. Mat Sci Eng C 23: 743-746. doi: 10.1016/j.msec.2003.09.074
![]() |
[22] | Epitaxial grown of hexagonal La2O3(0001) on Si (111) substrate has been reported by L. F. Edge, oral presentation, EMRS meeting 2006. |
[23] | Wyckoff RWG (1963) Crystal structures Vol.1, New York: John Wiley & Sons. |
[24] |
Engstron O, Raeissi B, Hall S, et al. (2007) Navigation aids in the search for future high-k dielectrics: Physical and electrical trends. Solid-State Electron 51: 622-626. doi: 10.1016/j.sse.2007.02.021
![]() |
[25] | Yu PY, Cardona M (2010) Fundamentals of Semiconductors Heidelberg: Springer |
[26] | Engel E, Dreizler RM (2011) newblock Density Functional Theory Heidelberg: Springer |
[27] |
Peacock PW, Robertson J (2004) Bonding, Energies, and Band Offsets of SiZrO2 and HfO2 Gate Oxide Interfaces. Phys Rev Lett 92: 057601. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.92.057601
![]() |
[28] |
Peressi M, Binggeli N, and Baldereschi A, (1998) Band engineering at interfaces: theory and numerical experiments. J Phys D: Appl Phys 31: 1273-1299. doi: 10.1088/0022-3727/31/11/002
![]() |
[29] | Balkanski M, Wallis RF (2000) Semiconductor Physics and Applications New York: Oxford University Press Inc. |
[30] |
Fiorentini V, Gulleri G (2002) Theoretical Evaluation of Zirconia and Hafnia as Gate Oxides for Si Microelectronics. Phys Rev Lett 89: 266101. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.89.266101
![]() |
[31] | Debernardi A, Wiemer C, and Fanciulli M (2007) Epitaxial phase of hafnium dioxide for ultra-scaled electronics. Phys Rev B 76: 155405 |
[32] |
Brommer KD, Needels M, Larson BE, and Joannopoulos JD (1992) Ab initio theory of the Si(111)-(77) surface reconstruction: A challenge for massively parallel computation. Phys Rev Lett 68: 1355-1358. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.68.1355
![]() |
[33] |
R. Vali (2006) Electronic, dynamical, and dielectric properties of lanthanum oxysulfide. Comp Mat Sci 37: 300-305. doi: 10.1016/j.commatsci.2005.08.007
![]() |
1. | J. Bouchet, R. M. Dianzinga, G. Jomard, Theoretical investigation of charged vacancies and clusters in UXO2 (X = La, Ce, Pu, Am), 2022, 132, 0021-8979, 075110, 10.1063/5.0098635 | |
2. | Nazia Erum, Muhammad Azhar Iqbal, Sadia Sagar, Fareed un Nabi, Effect of Hydrostatic pressure on structural, electronic, optical and mechanical properties of Lanthanum Oxide (La2O3), 2021, 96, 0031-8949, 115702, 10.1088/1402-4896/ac1474 | |
3. | Fatima Al-Quaiti, P.-Y. Chen, J. G. Ekerdt, A. A. Demkov, Contributions of bulk and surface energies in stabilizing metastable polymorphs: A comparative study of group 3 sesquioxides La2O3, Ga2O3 , and In2O3, 2022, 6, 2475-9953, 10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.6.043606 | |
4. | Shafaat Hussain Mirza, Muhammad Zulfiqar, Sikander Azam, Effect of hydrostatic pressure on electronic, elastic, and optical properties of hexagonal lanthanum oxide (La2O3): A first principles calculations, 2024, 676, 09214526, 415686, 10.1016/j.physb.2024.415686 |