Engineering topics

McComb, D W

Publications and source records attributed to McComb, D W.

4 records

DOE OSTI2012

Investigation of crystallization processes from hafnium silicate powders prepared from an oxychloride sol-gel

Hafnium oxide and silicate materials are now incorporated into working CMOS devices, however the crystallisation mechanism is still poorly understood. In particular, addition of SiO2 to HfO2 has been shown to increase the crystallisation temperature of HfO2 hence allowing it to remain amorphous under current processing conditions. Building on earlier work we here investigate bulk HfxSi1-xO2 samples to determine the effect of SiO2 on the crystallisation pathway. Techniques such as XRD, HTXRD, thermal analysis techniques and TEM are used. It is found that the addition of SiO2 has very little affect on the crystallisation path at temperatures below 900 C but at higher temperatures a second t-HfO2 phase nucleates and is stabilised due to the strain of the surrounding amorphous SiO2 material. With an increase in SiO2 content the temperature at which this nucleation and stabilisation occurs is increased. The effect of strain has implications for inhibiting the crystallisation of the high-k layer, reduction of grain boundaries and hence diffusion, reduction of formation of interface layers and the possibility of stabilising t-HfO2 rather than m-HfO2 hence increasing the dielectric of the layer.

McGilvery, Catriona M.↗

DOE OSTI2011

Probing local and global ferroelectric phase stability and polarization switching in ordered macroporous PZT

We describe the characterization, ferroelectric phase stability and polarization switching in strain-free macroscopic assemblies of 50-100 nm wide PbZr0.3Ti0.7O3 (PZT) nanostructures (ferroelectric nanosponges). The structures present uniquely large areas and volumes of PZT where the microstructure is spatially modulated and the composition is homogeneous. Variable temperature powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies show that the global structure is tetragonal at room temperature and undergoes a reversible tetragonal to cubic phase transition on heating/cooling. Our studies indicate that this transition temperature is 30-50 C lower than unstructured PZT of the same composition. To characterize and confirm that the structures are ferroelectric we have utilized piezoresponse force spectroscopy and we demonstrate that the switching polarization can be spatially mapped within the structures. Corresponding polarization distributions have been calculated for the bulk and nanostructured materials using a two-parameter direct variational method based on Landau-Ginzburg-Devonshire equation. Our studies correlate global and local characterization of ferroelectric nanostructures revealing that in the nanosponges tetragonal and ferroelectric PZT is stabilized and open a pathway for effective studies of nanoscale ferroelectrics in large volumes.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗

DOE OSTI2011

Characterization of Hafnia Powder Prepared from an Oxychloride Sol Gel

Hafnium containing compounds are of great importance to the semiconductor industry as a replacement for Si(O,N) with a high- gate dielectric. Whilst Hf is already being incorporated into working devices1, much is still to be understood about it. Here we investigate the crystallisation processes and chemistry of bulk HfO2 powders which will aid in interpretation of reactions and crystallisation events occurring in thin films used as gate dielectrics. Amorphous HfO2 powder was prepared via a sol-gel route using hafnium oxychloride (HfOCl2 xH2O) as a precursor. The powders were subjected to various heat treatments and analysed using x-ray diffraction (XRD) and thermal analysis techniques. It was found that a large change in the crystallisation pathway occurred when the sample was heated in an inert environment compared with in air. Instead of the expected monoclinic phase (m-HfO2), tetragonal HfO2 (t-HfO2) also formed under these conditions and was observed up to temperatures of ~760 C. The t-HfO2 particles, which are less than 30nm in size, eventually transform into m-HfO2 on further heating. Possible mechanisms for the crystallisation of t-HfO2 are discussed. It is proposed that within this temperature range t-HfO2 is stabilised due to the presence of oxygen vacancies in the inert environment, forming by the reduction of HfIV to HfIII. As the crystal grows in size as the temperature increases there are too few oxygen vacancies left in the structure to continue stabilising the t-HfO2 phase and so transformation to m-HfO2 occurs.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2010

Persistent template effect in InAs/GaAs quantum dot bilayers

The dependence of the optical properties of InAs/GaAs quantum dot (QD) bilayers on seed layer growth temperature and second layer InAs coverage is investigated. As the seed layer growth temperature is increased, a low density of large QDs is obtained. This results in a concomitant increase in dot size in the second layer, which extends their emission wavelength, reaching a saturation value of around 1400 nm at room temperature for GaAs-capped bilayers. Capping the second dot layer with InGaAs results in a further extension of the emission wavelength, to 1515 nm at room temperature with a narrow linewidth of 22 meV. Addition of more InAs to high density bilayers does not result in a significant extension of emission wavelength as most additional material migrates to coalesced InAs islands but, in contrast to single layers, a substantial population of regular QDs remains.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗