Lanthanum oxide nanostructured films synthesized using hot dense and extremely non-equilibrium plasma for nanoelectronic device applications.

Lanthanum oxide (La ₂O ₃) nanostructured films are synthesized on a p-type silicon wafer by ablation of La ₂O ₃ pellet due to interaction with hot dense argon plasmas in a modified dense plasma focus (DPF) device. The nanostructured films are investigated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) spectra. SEM study shows the formation of nano-films having nano-size structures with the average nanostructures size ~25, ~53, and ~45 nm for one, two, and three DPF shots, respectively. The nanostructures sizes and morphology of nano-films are consistent between the AFM and SEM analyses. XRD spectra confirms nano-sized La ₂O ₃ with an average grain size ~34, ~51, and ~42 nm for one, two, and three DPF shots, respectively. The electrical properties such as current–voltage and capacitance–voltage ( C– V) characteristics of the Al–La ₂O ₃–Si metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) capacitor structure are measured. The current conduction mechanism of the MOS capacitors is also demonstrated. The C– V characteristics are further used to obtain the electrical parameters such as the dielectric constant, oxide thickness, flat-band capacitance, and flat-band voltage of the MOS capacitors. These measurements demonstrate significantly lower leakage currents without any commonly used annealing or doping, thereby revealing a significant improvement of the MOS nanoelectronic device performance due to the incorporation of the DPF-produced La ₂O ₃ nano-films. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]