Zirconium oxide thin films were deposited directly on Si by ultra high vacuum electron beam evaporation (UHV-EBE) and rapid thermal annealed (RTA) in O-2 ambient at different temperatures ranging from 300 to 800 degreesC. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) revealed zirconium is in the fully oxidized state of Zr4+. X-ray diffraction (XRD) results showed that as deposited thin films were amorphous. When the annealing temperature increased higher than 700 degreesC, the films began to crystallize. The surface topology was studied with atomic force microscopy (AFM) and the surface of the 700 degreesC-annealed sample was more rougher than that of the 600 degreesC-annealed sample, due to its potentially faceted interfaces. And the typical RMS roughness ranged from 0.546 to 0.666 nm across an area of 50 mum x 50 mum. Sharp interfaces between ZrO2 and Si were obtained both by spreading resistance profile (SRP) and cross-sectional transmission electron microscope (XTEM). The interfacial oxide (similar to1 nm) was not detected until annealing temperature amounting to 700 degreesC and the exact compositions were not known yet. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.