Preparation of epitaxial YSZ thin film on Si(001) using metal and oxide targets by RF-magnetron sputtering

Abstract Epitaxial growth of YSZ on Si(001) by RF-magnetron sputtering was first realized using metal (Zr+Y) and oxide (YSZ) targets. Metal target was initially used to control the redox reaction between Si and ZrO2 on the SiO2/Si(001) substrate. The redox reaction was evaluated by XPS. Optimal thickness of metal (Zr+Y) film to obtain films having high crystallinity was 2 nm. Deposition using oxide target was followed by the deposition using metal target to enhance the compositional uniformity of the film. The Capacitance-Voltage (C-V) curve of the epitaxial YSZ/Si(001) showed ‘‘ion-drift'’ type characteristics. The dielectric constant of the film was 20, which is close to that of bulk YSZ (εr=27).