Plasma-Enhanced Atomic Layer Deposition of TiO[sub 2] and Al-Doped TiO[sub 2] Films Using N[sub 2]O and O[sub 2] Reactants

Rutile-structured and Al-doped dielectric thin films were grown on a sputtered Ru electrode by atomic layer deposition (ALD) using - or -plasma oxidants. The -plasma-based ALD process produced films with a similar growth rate and electrical performance to those deposited using the -oxidant-based ALD process, which has been reported previously [ S. K. Kim et al. , Appl. Phys. Lett. , 85 , 4112 (2004) ; S. K. Kim et al. , Chem. Mater. , 20 , 3723 (2008) ]. In contrast, the -plasma-based ALD process resulted in a 1.8 times higher growth rate than that of the -oxidant-based ALD process with identical electrical performance. Denser and uniform oxidation of Ru is essential for achieving pure rutile films with a higher dielectric constant (up to 100) on Ru electrodes.