A complex approach to study the initial stage of degradation of hafnium oxide dielectric films during vacuum thermal annealing up to T = 900°C is proposed. Spreading resistance, Kelvin probe, and force modulation methods are used in addition to surface topography measurements. It is found that degradation processes of ultrathin hafnium oxide layers in contact with silicon during vacuum annealing are characterized by strong spatial inhomogeneity, and it is demonstrated that some areas can be localized at different stages of this process.
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Baturin et al. (2007) studied this question.
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