Effect of growth rate on crystallization of HfO₂ thin films deposited by RF magnetron sputtering

Hafnium oxide (HfO₂) is the potentially useful dielectric material in both; electronics to replace the conventional SiO₂ as gate dielectric and in Optics as anti-reflection coating material. In this present work we have synthesized polycrystalline HfO₂ thin films by RF magnetron sputtering deposition technique with varying target to substrate distance. The deposited films were characterized by X-ray Diffraction, Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry (RBS) and transmission and Reflection (T&R) measurements to study the growth behavior, microstructure and optical properties. XRD measurement shows that the samples having mixed phase of monoclinic, cubic and tetragonal crystal structure. RBS measurements suggest the formation of Inter Layer (IL) in between Substrate and film