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The electronics transport mechanism of grain and grain boundary in semiconductive hafnium oxynitride thin film

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Abstract

HfOxNy thin film was deposited on oxidized silicon substrate; its physical structure and chemical composition were studied in detail by X-ray diffractometer, scanning electron microscopy, field emission transmission electron microscope and X-ray photoelectron spectrometer. Microtemperature sensors with high sensitivity based on the film were fabricated. To clarify the conduction process of grain, grain boundary (GB) and the whole film, temperature-dependent AC impedances of a sensor were measured and analyzed in 40–300 K. The results show that at all of the measured temperatures, the resistance of grain is much larger than that of GB, and its rising rates with the temperature reduction are also much larger than that of GB, indicating that the resistive property of HfOxNy thin film is determined by grain. In addition, it has been confirmed that the conduction process of both the HfOxNy film and GB is dominated by thermal activation and Mott variable-range hopping (VRH) in relatively high and low temperature range, respectively. The conduction process of the grain obeys Mott VRH in the whole considered temperature range, while the Mott characteristic temperature is changed. These results provide new insights into the performance enhancement of the transition metal oxynitride-based temperature sensors.

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Acknowledgements

This work was partially funded by the National Key R&D Program of China under grant 2017YFB1002501, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 61728402), the Research Program of Shanghai Science and Technology Committee (17JC1402800), the Program of Shanghai Academic/Technology Research Leader (18XD1401900). The authors are also grateful to the Center for Advanced Electronic Materials and Devices (AEMD) of Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

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  1. National Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on Micro/Nano Fabrication, Key Laboratory for Thin Film and Micro Fabrication of Ministry of Education, Department of Micro/Nano-Electronics, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China

    Zude Lin, Xiuyan Li, Yujin Zeng, Minmin You, Fangfang Wang & Jingquan Liu

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  1. Zude Lin
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Lin, Z., Li, X., Zeng, Y. et al. The electronics transport mechanism of grain and grain boundary in semiconductive hafnium oxynitride thin film. J Mater Sci 55, 2881–2890 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-019-03952-4

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