The thermal stability of Pt/epitaxial Gd2O3 /Si stacks and its dependence on heat-treatment ambient

E. Lipp*, H. J. Osten, M. Eizenberg

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

The stability of Pt/epitaxial Gd2 O3 /Si stacks is studied by monitoring the chemical and electrical properties following heat treatments in forming gas and in vacuum at temperatures between 400 and 650 °C. Our results show that stack instability is realized via diffusion of Gd through the Pt grain boundaries, which was observed after forming-gas annealing at 550 °C for 30 min. The Gd diffusion kinetics in forming gas is studied by secondary ion mass spectrometry analysis, showing that the diffusion process occurs according to C-type kinetics with an activation energy of 0.73±0.04 eV. Following vacuum heat treatments at 600 °C for 30 min, Si outdiffusion is observed, in addition to Gd outdiffusion. Si outdiffusion results in the formation of PtSi clusters on the metal surface following vacuum annealing at 650 °C. In contrast, in the case of forming-gas treatments, Si diffusion and silicide formation were detected only after annealing at 700 °C. The better stability of Pt/ Gd2 O3 /Si stacks in forming gas is correlated with the content of oxygen in the Pt layer during the treatment.

Original languageEnglish
Article number113505
JournalJournal of Applied Physics
Volume106
Issue number11
DOIs
StatePublished - 2009
Externally publishedYes

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