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Band alignment of HfO2 with various thicknesses on SiO2/Si structure is investigated by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Band bending of HfO2/SiO2/Si system is found to vary with HfO2 thickness. Band alignment of entire HfO2/SiO2/Si is demonstrated using concepts of interfacial or surface gap states and charge neutrality level (CNL). The XPS results are interpreted and attributed to lower CNL of HfO2 than SiO2/Si which induces electron transfer from SiO2/Si to HfO2, resulting in band bending upward for SiO2/Si. These further confirm feasibility of gap state based theory in investigating band alignments of oxide/semiconductor and oxide/oxide interfaces.
Wang et al. (2012) studied this question.