Influence of sputter power on structural and electrical properties of TiO sub(2) films for Al/TiO sub(2)/Si gate capacitors

Titanium dioxide (TiO sub(2)) thin films were deposited onto p-Si substrates held at room temperature by reactive Direct Current (DC) magnetron sputtering at various sputter powers in the range 80-200W. The as-deposited TiO sub(2) films were annealed at a temperature of 1023K. The post-annealed films were characterized for crystallographic structure, chemical binding configuration, surface morphology and optical absorption. The electrical and dielectric properties of Al/TiO sub(2)/p-Si structure were determined from the capacitance-voltage and current-voltage characteristics. X-ray diffraction studies confirmed that the as-deposited films were amorphous in nature. After post-annealing at 1023K, the films formed at lower powers exhibited anatase phase, where as those deposited at sputter powers > 160W showed the mixed anatase and rutile phases of TiO sub(2). The surface morphology of the films varied significantly with the increase of sputter power. The electrical and dielectric properties on the air-annealed Al/TiO sub(2)/p-Si structures were studied. The effect of sputter power on the electrical and dielectric characteristics of the structure of Al/TiO sub(2)/p-Si (metal-insulator-semiconductor) was systematically investigated. Copyright copyright 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.