Post‐deposition‐annealed lanthanum‐doped cerium oxide thin films: structural and electrical properties

Abstract

Abstract The metal‐organic‐decomposed lanthanum cerium oxide (LaCeO 2 ) solution was spin‐coated on p‐type Si substrate to form thin films. The method of microwave‐assisted annealing was adopted to modify the surface properties of the deposited thin films. The post‐deposition annealing (PDA) at different microwave powers and thermal annealing temperature of 400 °C was performed on LaCeO 2 thin films spin‐coated on Si. Influence of this PDA on structural and electrical properties of deposited LaCeO 2 thin films was studied and compared. X‐ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) results reveal the great improvement in the structural properties in terms of removal of residual impurities from LaCeO 2 films, reduced roughness and improvement in crystalline properties as compared to those of hot‐plate‐annealed samples. The electrical properties of Al/LaCeO 2 /Si stack were also studied. The different electrical parameters such as k value, interface trap density ( D it ) and effective oxide charges ( Q eff ) were extracted and found to be improved with the increase in microwave annealing power.