Texture development in nanocrystalline hafnium dioxide thin films grown byatomic layer deposition

Structure development in hafnium dioxide thin films grown by atomic layer d eposition was studied. The method allowed deposition of nanocrystalline fil ms on silicon and silica substrates at temperatures 300-940 degreesC. The c rystalline films of 30-375 nm thickness contained monoclinic HfO2, mainly, independent of the growth temperature used. Both orientation and sizes of c rystallites depended on the growth temperature and film thickness. The film s with most developed preferential orientation (texture) were obtained at 5 00 degreesC. The preferential orientation appeared because the crystallites grew faster in the directions [001] and [111] than in the other crystallog raphic directions. In the highly textured films grown at 500 degreesC, the crystallite sizes did not exceed 50 nm while in the films grown at 300 degr eesC and 940 degreesC they reached 100 nm. Variation of precursor doses at the growth temperature 940 degreesC allowed us to obtain preferentially ori ented monoclinic and/or randomly oriented cubic structure at the thin-film surface. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.