Influence of metal electrodes on c-axis orientation of AlN thin films deposited by DC magnetron sputtering

• Nanocrystalline aluminum nitride (AlN) thin films were deposited on two types of metallic seed layers on silicon substrates, (111) textured Pt and (110) Mo, by reactive DC magnetron sputtering at low temperature (200 °C). Both textured films of Pt and Mo promote nucleation, thereby improving the crystallinity and epitaxial growth condition for AlN thin films. The deposited films were examined by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy techniques. The results indicated that the preferred orientation of crystallites greatly depends upon the kinetic energy of the sputtered species (target power) and seed layers used. Furthermore, AlN thin films with c-axis perpendicular to the substrate grew on both types of metal electrodes at all power levels larger than 100 W. By comparing the structural properties and compressive stresses at perfect c-axis orientation conditions, it is evident that AlN films deposited on (110) oriented Mo substrates exhibited superior properties as compared with Pt/Ti seed layers. Furthermore, less values of compressive stresses (−3 GPa) as compared with Pt/Ti substrates (−7.08 GPa) make Mo preferentially better candidate to be employed in the field of suspended Micro/Nano - electromechanical systems (MEMS/NEMS) for piezoelectric devices.

Ämnesord

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Elektroteknik och elektronik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

AlN

c-axis orientation

compressive stresses

metal electrodes

reactive sputtering

Aluminum coatings

Aluminum nitride

Atomic force microscopy

Compressive stress

Electrodes

Electromechanical devices

Epitaxial growth

Kinetic energy

Kinetics

Magnetron sputtering

Metals

Molybdenum

Nanocrystalline silicon

Nanocrystals

Platinum

Platinum alloys

Scanning electron microscopy

Sputtering

Substrates

Temperature

X ray diffraction

C-axis orientations

Dc magnetron sputtering

Electromechanical systems

Nanocrystalline aluminum

Preferred orientations

Reactive DC magnetron sputtering

Silicon substrates

Thin films

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)