Structural and dielectric properties of sputtered SrxZr(1-x)Oy.

Over the past years, high-k dielectrics have been incorporated into modern semiconductor devices. One example is ZrO2, which has been introduced in memory applications. This paper elucidates some difficulties with pure ZrO2 like unintended crystallization during the growth of the dielectric and the evolution of the monoclinic phase, which reduces the k-value. The admixture of Sr is shown as a solution to circumvent those issues. A detailed structural analysis for a varying stoichiometry ranging from pure ZrO2 to the perovskite SrZrO3 is given. The detected crystal structures are correlated to our observations of the dielectric properties obtained by an electrical characterization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]