Structural and morphological properties of CeO2 films deposited by radio frequency magnetron sputtering for back-end-of-line integration

• CeO2 films sputtered at low substrate temperature (300°C) • Possible back-end-of-line integration in device fabrication processes • Large degree of crystallinity and well-defined facet orientation • Cross-sectional images the films show columnar textures Cerium oxides have potential applications ranging from low-temperature gas sensing to photodetection. A back-end-of-line integration of the material into complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor device fabrication processes has many advantages but places limits on material deposition, most notably the thermal budget for deposition and annealing. Here, we investigate thin cerium oxide films deposited by radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering at substrate temperatures of 300°C and RF magnetron powers between 30 W and 70 W without any post-deposition annealing steps. Our investigation of the structural and morphological properties reveals a columnar texture of the thin films, and we find that the material is composed predominantly of CeO 2 (111), with a large degree of crystallinity. We discuss implications for resistive gas sensing applications.