Growth and characterization of ultrathin nitrided silicon oxide films

This paper reviews recent progress in understanding microstructural and growth-mechanistic aspects of ultrathin (4 nm) oxynitride films for gate dielectric applications. Different techniques for characterizing these films are summarized. We discuss several nitridation methods, including thermal (oxy)nitridation in NO, N(2)O, and N(2) as well as a variety of deposition methods. We show that a basic understanding of the gas-phase and thin-film oxygen and nitrogen incorporation chemistries facilitates the processing of layered oxynitride nanostructures with desirable electrical properties.