There are significant thermal reliability concerns for most of the high dielectric constant (high-k) materials currently being studied that require direct contact with Si. The pure metal-oxide zirconium oxide (ZrO2) was, however, found to be thermodynamically stable and could be a promising alternative gate dielectric for deep submicron CMOS technology. This paper reported the growth of ZrO2 thin films on silicon substrates by photo-assisted sol-gel processing using intense radiation from 172 nm excimer lamps, The effects of ultraviolet (UV) irradiation at various temperatures were investigated using ellipsometry. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. and demonstrated a dependence of the film properties on both the exposure pressure and time. The films grown were found to be highly stable against silicate formation upon UV irradiation. Preliminary electrical measurements of these layers were also reported. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.