Nanoclusters of MoO3−x embedded in an Al2O3 matrix engineered for customizable mesoscale resistivity and high dielectric strength

We have synthesized a material consisting of conducting metal oxide (MoO3−x) nanoclusters embedded in a high-dielectric-strength insulator (Al2O3) matrix. The resistivity of this material can be customized by varying the concentration of the MoO3−x nanoclusters. The Al2O3 protects the MoO3−x from stoichiometry change, thus conserving the number of carriers and maintaining a high dielectric strength. This composite material is grown by atomic layer deposition, a thin film deposition technique suitable for coating 3D structures. We applied these atomic layer deposition composite films to our 3D electron-optical micro electrical mechanical systems devices and greatly improved their performance.

[1]  Virginia R. Anderson,et al.  Molybdenum Atomic Layer Deposition Using MoF6 and Si2H6 as the Reactants , 2011 .

[2]  Zheng-Hong Lu,et al.  Universal energy-level alignment of molecules on metal oxides. , 2011, Nature materials.

[3]  Steven M. George,et al.  Growth of ZnO/Al2O3 Alloy Films Using Atomic Layer Deposition Techniques , 2003 .

[4]  Anderson Janotti,et al.  Native defects in Al2O3 and their impact on III-V/Al2O3 metal-oxide-semiconductor-based devices , 2011 .

[5]  Jason McPhate,et al.  An atomic layer deposition method to fabricate economical and robust large area microchannel plates for photodetectors , 2012 .

[6]  J. Stathis,et al.  Dielectric breakdown mechanisms in gate oxides , 2005 .

[7]  S. George,et al.  Properties of ZnO / Al2 O 3 Alloy Films Grown Using Atomic Layer Deposition Techniques , 2003 .

[8]  Peide D. Ye,et al.  Leakage current and breakdown electric-field studies on ultrathin atomic-layer-deposited Al2O3 on GaAs , 2005 .

[9]  Alan Brodie,et al.  Fabrication of Coatings with Targeted Tunable Electrical Properties via ALD: Al2O3/ZnO and Nb2O5/Ta2O5 , 2010 .

[10]  Steven M. George,et al.  Electrical characterization of thin Al2O3 films grown by atomic layer deposition on silicon and various metal substrates , 2002 .

[11]  J. Simmons,et al.  Determination of the defect nature of MoO3 films using dielectric‐relaxation currents , 1972 .

[12]  Steven M. George,et al.  Al3O3 thin film growth on Si(100) using binary reaction sequence chemistry , 1997 .