A barrier material that is particularly suited as a barrier layer in copper
interconnects structures found in semiconductor structures. The barrier
layer contains one or more regions with one region containing at least 50
atom percent of a copper interface metal. The copper interface metal is
selected from ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, silver, gold, platinum,
iridium, selenium, tellurium, or alloys thereof. The barrier layer also
contains a dielectric interface material.