Impact of High-Temperature Annealing on Interfacial Layers Grown by O2 Plasma on Si0.5Ge0.5 Substrates

This article demonstrates the influence of high-temperature annealing on an interfacial layer (IL) grown by O ₂ plasma on Si _0.5 Ge _0.5 substrates. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy results revealed that under an annealing temperature of 1000 °C, the concentration of germanium oxide in the IL decreased, and an IL with pure silicon oxide (~100%) was produced. With a decrease in germanium oxide concentration, the SiGe metal oxide semiconductor capacitor exhibited an excellent interface trap density of $1.6\times10$ ¹² cm ⁻² eV ⁻¹ with negligible hysteresis. Furthermore, compared with 1000 °C IL annealing, 800 °C IL annealing was more suitable for preferential SiO ₂ growth without relaxation and dislocation in the SiGe layer, as observed using a transmission electron microscope.