Amorphous hafnium silicates: structural, electronic and dielectric properties

Models of amorphous (HfO2)x(SiO2)(1), for varying hafnium, content x are generated by ab initio molecular dynamics. The structural properties are analyzed in terms of pair distribution functions from which typical bond lengths and coordination numbers are extracted. Electronic band gaps are calculated with a hybrid density functional and are found to decrease in a nonlinear way with increasing x, in accord with experimental observations. Static dielectric constants are evaluated through the application of a finite electric field. The calculated values show a linear dependence on x, supporting recent experimental data.

Structural and electronic properties of an abrupt 4H-SiC(0001)/SiO2 interface model: Classical molecular dynamics simulations and density functional calculations

Peter Broqvist, Fabien Devynck, Alfredo Pasquarello

Using a density functional approach, we study structural and electronic properties of the 4H(0001)-SiC/SiO2 interface. Through the sequential use of classical and ab initio simulation methods, we generate an abrupt model structure which describes the transition between crystalline SiC and amorphous SiO2 without showing any coordination defect. The first step in our generation procedure consists in identifying suitable interfacial bonding patterns which account for the bond density reduction across the interface. In the second step, the connection to amorphous SiO2 is achieved through classical molecular dynamics. The atomic positions are then relaxed within a generalized gradient approximation of density functional theory. The final model structure shows good structural parameters and an oxide density typical of amorphous SiO2. We investigate the electronic structure of the generated model interface through the local density of states obtained with hybrid density functionals. In our atomically abrupt interface model, the full oxide band gap is recovered at a distance of similar to 5 A from the interface. This extent is in good agreement with estimates derived from internal photoemission measurements and provides support for the abrupt nature of the interface. We obtained band offsets through two different procedures: by evaluating the local density of states and by aligning the band extrema through the local electrostatic potential. Band offsets calculated with various functionals are compared to experimental values. The best agreement is achieved for a hybrid functional in which a screened Coulomb potential is used in the Hartree-Fock exchange term. For this case, the calculated band offsets underestimate the experimental values by similar to 25%, but agree with experiment within a few percent when expressed with respect to the oxide band gap.

2007

Band gaps and dielectric constants of amorphous hafnium silicates: A first-principles investigation

Peter Broqvist, Alfredo Pasquarello

Electronic band gaps and dielectric constants are obtained for amorphous hafnium silicates using first-principles methods. Models of amorphous (HfO2)(x)(SiO2)(1-x) for varying x are generated by ab initio molecular dynamics. The calculations show that the presence of Hf gives rise to low-lying conduction states which explain the experimentally observed nonlinear dependence of the band gap on hafnium content. Static dielectric constants are found to depend linearly on x, supporting recent experimental data. (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics.

2007

Band alignments and defect levels in Si-HfO2 gate stacks: Oxygen vacancy and Fermi-level pinning

Audrius Alkauskas, Peter Broqvist, Alfredo Pasquarello

The determination of band alignments and defect levels is demonstrated for the technologically relevant Si-SiO2-HfO2 gate stack. The proposed scheme, which combines first-principles molecular dynamics for model generation and hybrid density functionals for electronic-structure calculations, yields band offsets in close agreement with experiment. Charge transition and pinning levels associated with oxygen vacancies are aligned with respect to the silicon band edges. The vacancies are shown to preferentially reside in the amorphous transition layer, consistent with experimental observations of Fermi-level pinning.

2008

Structural and electronic properties of an abrupt 4H-SiC(0001)/SiO2 interface model: Classical molecular dynamics simulations and density functional calculations

Peter Broqvist, Fabien Devynck, Alfredo Pasquarello

2007