skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.


Title: Fully Transparent Epitaxial Oxide Thin‐Film Transistor Fabricated at Back‐End‐of‐Line Temperature by Suboxide Molecular‐Beam Epitaxy
Abstract Transparent oxide thin film transistors (TFTs) are an important ingredient of transparent electronics. Their fabrication at the back‐end‐of‐line (BEOL) opens the door to novel strategies to more closely integrate logic with memory for data‐intensive computing architectures that overcome the scaling challenges of today's integrated circuits. A recently developed variant of molecular‐beam epitaxy (MBE) called suboxide MBE (S‐MBE) is demonstrated to be capable of growing epitaxial In2O3at BEOL temperatures with unmatched crystal quality. The fullwidth at halfmaximum of the rocking curve is 0.015° and, thus, ≈5x narrower than any reports at any temperature to date and limited by the substrate quality. The key to achieving these results is the provision of an In2O beam by S‐MBE, which enables growth in adsorption control and is kinetically favorable. To benchmark this deposition method for TFTs, rudimentary devices were fabricated.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1719875 2039380
PAR ID:
10576640
Author(s) / Creator(s):
 ;  ;  ;  ;  ;  ;  ;  ;  ;  ;  ;  ;  ;  ;  ;  ;  
Publisher / Repository:
Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Advanced Electronic Materials
Volume:
11
Issue:
3
ISSN:
2199-160X
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. Abstract In metal‐oxide thin‐film transistors (TFTs), high‐kgate dielectrics often yield a higher electron mobility than SiO2. However, investigations regarding the mechanism of this high‐k“mobility boost” are relatively scarce. To explore this phenomenon, solution‐processed In2O3TFTs are fabricated using eight different gate dielectrics (SiO2, Al2O3, ZrO2, HfO2, and bilayer SiO2/high‐kstructures). With these structures, the total gate capacitance can be varied independently from the semiconductor–dielectric interface to study this mobility enhancement. It is shown that the mobility enhancement is a combination of the effects of areal gate capacitance and interface quality for disordered oxide semiconductor devices. The ZrO2‐gated TFTs achieve the highest mobility by inducing more accumulation charge with higher gate capacitance. Surprisingly, however, when the gate capacitance is held constant, no mobility enhancement is observed with the high‐kgate dielectrics compared to SiO2
    more » « less
  2. We report the use of suboxide molecular-beam epitaxy (S-MBE) to grow α-(AlxGa1−x)2O3 films on (110) sapphire substrates over the 0 < x < 0.95 range of aluminum content. In S-MBE, 99.98% of the gallium-containing molecular beam arrives at the substrate in a preoxidized form as gallium suboxide (Ga2O). This bypasses the rate-limiting step of conventional MBE for the growth of gallium oxide (Ga2O3) from a gallium molecular beam and allows us to grow fully epitaxial α-(AlxGa1−x)2O3 films at growth rates exceeding 1 µm/h and relatively low substrate temperature (Tsub = 605 ± 15 °C). The ability to grow α-(AlxGa1−x)2O3 over the nominally full composition range is confirmed by Vegard’s law applied to the x-ray diffraction data and by optical bandgap measurements with ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy. We show that S-MBE allows straightforward composition control and bandgap selection for α-(AlxGa1−x)2O3 films as the aluminum incorporation x in the film is linear with the relative flux ratio of aluminum to Ga2O. The films are characterized by atomic-force microscopy, x-ray diffraction, and scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM). These α-(AlxGa1−x)2O3 films grown by S-MBE at record growth rates exhibit a rocking curve full width at half maximum of ≊ 12 arc secs, rms roughness <1 nm, and are fully commensurate for x ≥ 0.5 for 20–50 nm thick films. STEM imaging of the x = 0.78 sample reveals high structural quality and uniform composition. Despite the high structural quality of the films, our attempts at doping with silicon result in highly insulating films. 
    more » « less
  3. Abstract The making of BaZrS3thin films by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) is demonstrated. BaZrS3forms in the orthorhombic distorted‐perovskite structure with corner‐sharing ZrS6octahedra. The single‐step MBE process results in films smooth on the atomic scale, with near‐perfect BaZrS3stoichiometry and an atomically sharp interface with the LaAlO3substrate. The films grow epitaxially via two competing growth modes: buffered epitaxy, with a self‐assembled interface layer that relieves the epitaxial strain, and direct epitaxy, with rotated‐cube‐on‐cube growth that accommodates the large lattice constant mismatch between the oxide and the sulfide perovskites. This work sets the stage for developing chalcogenide perovskites as a family of semiconductor alloys with properties that can be tuned with strain and composition in high‐quality epitaxial thin films, as has been long‐established for other systems including Si‐Ge, III‐Vs, and II‐VIs. The methods demonstrated here also represent a revival of gas‐source chalcogenide MBE. 
    more » « less
  4. We report the use of suboxide molecular-beam epitaxy (S-MBE) to grow β-Ga2O3 at a growth rate of ∼1 µm/h with control of the silicon doping concentration from 5 × 1016 to 1019 cm−3. In S-MBE, pre-oxidized gallium in the form of a molecular beam that is 99.98% Ga2O, i.e., gallium suboxide, is supplied. Directly supplying Ga2O to the growth surface bypasses the rate-limiting first step of the two-step reaction mechanism involved in the growth of β-Ga2O3 by conventional MBE. As a result, a growth rate of ∼1 µm/h is readily achieved at a relatively low growth temperature (Tsub ≈ 525 °C), resulting in films with high structural perfection and smooth surfaces (rms roughness of <2 nm on ∼1 µm thick films). Silicon-containing oxide sources (SiO and SiO2) producing an SiO suboxide molecular beam are used to dope the β-Ga2O3 layers. Temperature-dependent Hall effect measurements on a 1 µm thick film with a mobile carrier concentration of 2.7 × 1017 cm−3 reveal a room-temperature mobility of 124 cm2 V−1 s−1 that increases to 627 cm2 V−1 s−1 at 76 K; the silicon dopants are found to exhibit an activation energy of 27 meV. We also demonstrate working metal–semiconductor field-effect transistors made from these silicon-doped β-Ga2O3 films grown by S-MBE at growth rates of ∼1 µm/h. 
    more » « less
  5. Abstract Straining the vanadium dimers along the rutilec‐axis can be used to tune the metal‐to‐insulator transition (MIT) of VO2but has thus far been limited to TiO2substrates. In this work VO2/MgF2epitaxial films are grown via molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) to strain engineer the transition temperature (TMIT). First, growth parameters are optimized by varying the synthesis temperature of the MgF2(001) substrate (TS) using a combination of X‐ray diffraction techniques, temperature dependent transport, and soft X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy. It is determined thatTSvalues greater than 350 °C induce Mg and F interdiffusion and ultimately the relaxation of the VO2layer. Using the optimized growth temperature, VO2/MgF2(101) and (110) films are then synthesized. The three film orientations display MITs with transition temperatures in the range of 15–60 °C through precise strain engineering. 
    more » « less