Voltage-dependent fabrication of nanoporous alumina and the applications to nanocapacitors

We investigated the fabrication of anodized aluminum oxide by anodization processes under DC and AC voltage biases. A two-step anodization process was used to fabricate the anodized aluminum oxide dielectrics in order to regulate the ordered nanopore array at the surface. AC samples showed the distorted nanoporous structure instead of a straight nanopore array in DC samples. As increasing the frequency of AC bias the nanovoid or nanocavity structure was formulated with the increased density of nanovoids. Nanoporous alumina was used for the fabrication of Ni-insulator-Al capacitors. The DC sample shows the tunneling process of an increase in leakage current and breakdown. When a negative voltage is applied to the capacitor device, the small current of 2 nA flows at a voltage of 0 V, indicating the existance of residual leakage current. The AC sample had very low leakage currents of the AAO dielectrics and the AAO hexagonal unit cell formed the nanocapacitor with a capacitance of 1-2 aF.