CHARACTERISTICS OF HIGH-QUALITY TANTALUM OXIDE-FILMS DEPOSITED BY PHOTOINDUCED CHEMICAL-VAPOR-DEPOSITION

A method is presented for the photodeposition of tantalum oxide films from tantalum ethoxide and nitrous oxide using 172 nm radiation. The c omposition of the tantalum oxides deposited by this technique was dete rmined by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy while the optical and elect rical properties were characterized using ellipsometry, capacitance-vo ltage, and current-voltage techniques. A leakage current density as lo w as 3.2X10(-7) A cm(-2) at a voltage of 10 V is obtained for the as-g rown films. This is several orders of magnitude better than for any ot her Ta2O5 films deposited using either conventional or plasma-chemical vapor deposition techniques. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(98)04742-1].