Amorphous stoichiometric lanthanum oxide (La2O3) thin films were grown on Si(100) by atomic layer deposition technique using lanthanum 2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-3,5-heptanedione and water (H2O) as precursors. The structural and electrical properties were investigated by transmission electron microscope, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), current-voltage (I-V) and capacitance-voltage (C-V) measurements. In particular, the effects of thermal annealing oil the La2O3 film properties such as crystallinity, I-V and C-V characteristics were measured. Post-annealing at 700 degrees C improved the electrical properties to reduce the leakage current density up to 2 x 10(-7) A/cm(2) at the bias voltage of +1 V. It was also observed that the capacitance increased and the shift of the flat band voltage, V-FB, disappeared with the post-annealing. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All lights reserved.