Summary: | Epitaxial lanthanum fluoride (LaF3) is considered an important and outstanding material for the fabrication of Metal–Insulator–Semiconductor (MIS) capacitive devices. In the quest of finding a green and low-cost scalable technique for the epitaxial deposition of LaF3 thin-film, this article presents an investigation on a home-made deep eutectic solvent (DES)-based chemical route for LaF3 thin film deposition on p-type silicon (p-Si) using the spin coating technique. The x-ray diffraction study confirmed the epitaxial deposition of LaF3 film on the p-Si substrate. An almost pinhole-free homogeneous surface and nearly stoichiometric epitaxial LaF3 were observed on the Si substrate through scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy, respectively. From the capacitance–voltage (C–V) characteristics, the capacitance of the Ag/LaF3/p-Si/Ag device with four-layer LaF3 was maximum among the Ag/LaF3/p-Si/Ag devices with two-layer, four-layer, and six-layer LaF3. The flat band potential of the Ag/LaF3/p-Si/Ag structure was determined from the Mott–Schottky plot. The experimental results indicate that the DES-based epitaxial deposition of LaF3 film on the p-Si substrate could be a highly promising technique for the fabrication of LaF3-based MIS capacitive devices.
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