The effect of growth temperature on the atomic layer deposition of zirconium oxide (ZrO₂) dielectric thin films that were fabricated using a CpZr[N(CH₃)₂]₃/C₇H₈ cocktail precursor with ozone was investigated. The chemical, structural, and electrical properties of ZrO₂ films grown at temperatures from 250 to 350 °C were characterized. Stoichiometric ZrO₂ films formed at 250–350 °C with an atomic ratio of O to Zr of 1.8–1.9 and a low content of carbon impurities. The film formed at 300 °C was predominantly the tetragonal crystalline phase, whereas that formed at 350 °C was a mixture of tetragonal and monoclinic phases. Electrical properties, such as capacitance, leakage current, and voltage linearity of TiN/ZrO₂/TiN capacitors fabricated using the thin ZrO₂ films grown at different temperatures were compared capacitor applications. The ZrO₂ film grown at 300 °C exhibited low impurity content, predominantly tetragonal crystalline structure, a high dielectric permittivity of 38.3, a low leakage current of below 10⁻⁷ A/cm² at 2 V, and low-voltage linearity.

We fabricated a GaN MISIM (metal-insulator-semiconductor-insulator-metal) UV photodiode using two high-k dielectrics of ZrO₂ and Al₂O₃. The fabricated UV photodiode using ZrO₂ showed better photo-electronic properties than that using Al₂O₃. The dark and photo-responsive current density ratios of the device with ZrO₂ and Al₂O₃ were 250 and 196 at 10 V bias. Their UV/visible rejection ratios (UVRRs) were 1.65 × 10² and 1.34 × 10² for 365 nm wavelength at 1 V bias, respectively. The noise spectral density of the device with ZrO₂ was 1.3 × 10² A²/Hz for 10 Hz at 3 V bias which has lower noise value than that with Al₂O₃. The GaN MISIM UV photodiode with ZrO₂ has over 20 % improved photo-electronic properties and lower noise than that with Al₂O₃.