Epitaxial Y2O3 films grown on Si(111) by pulsed-laser ablation

Y2O3 has a relatively high dielectric constant (13-17) leading to several p otential applications. In this work, pulsed-laser deposition was used to gr ow epitaxial Y2O3 films on Si(111) substrates. Structural characterization indicated two-dimensional growth without the formation of an amorphous inte rfacial layer. Annealing in either Ar or O-2 was found to induce an O-2 dif fusion reaction resulting in the formation of two interfacial amorphous lay ers. Electrical characterization by capacitance-voltage and current-voltage indicated that the as-grown samples were poor insulating films. Annealing the samples improved the electrical performance by lowering leakage current s and exhibiting inversion during capacitance-voltage testing. This epitaxi al growth points toward the possibility of the heteroepitaxial growth of si licon on insulator device structures. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physic s. [S0003-6951(00)02613-9].