The influence of carbon doping on the performance of Gd2O3 as high-k gate dielectric

One of the approaches for overcoming the issue of leakage current in modern metal-oxide-semiconductor devices is utilizing the high dielectric constants of lanthanide based oxides. We investigated the effect of carbon doping directly into Gd2O3 layers on the performance of such devices. It was found that the amount of carbon introduced into the dielectric is above the solubility limit; carbon atoms enrich the oxide-semiconductor interface and cause a significant shift in the flat band voltage of the stack. Although the carbon atoms slightly degrade this interface, this method has a potential for tuning the flat band voltage of such structures.