Effect of Y concentration and film thickness on microstructure and electrical properties of HfO2 based thin films

Abstract In this work, we introduced a simple solution processing method to prepare yttrium (Y) doped hafnium oxide (HfO2) based dielectric films. The films had high densities, low surface roughness, maximum permittivity of about 32, leakage current  5.0 MV/cm. In addition to dielectric performance, we investigated the influence of YO1.5 fraction on the electronic structure between Y doped HfO2 thin films and silicon (Si) substrates. The valence band electronic structure, energy gap and conduction band structure changed linearly with YO1.5 fraction. Given this cost-effective deposition technique and excellent dielectric performance, solution-processed Y doped HfO2 based thin films have the potential for insulator applications.