Purpose

This paper aims to report the influence of sputtering plasma deposition time on the structural and mechanical properties of the a-axis oriented aluminium nitride (AlN) thin films.

Design/methodology/approach

The AlN films were prepared using RF magnetron sputtering plasma on a silicon substrate without any external heating with various deposition times. The films were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), field-emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM), atomic force microscope (AFM) and nanoindentation techniques.

Findings

The XRD results show that the AlN thin films are highly oriented along the (100) AlN plane at various deposition times indicating the a-axis preferred orientation. All the AlN thin films exhibit hexagonal AlN with a wurtzite structure. The hardness and Young’s modulus of AlN thin films with various deposition times were measured using a nanoindenter. The measured hardness of the AlN films on Si was in the range of 14.1 to 14.7 GPa. The surface roughness and the grain size measured using the AFM revealed that both are dependent on the deposition times.

Originality/value

The novelty of this work lies with a comparison of hardness and Young’s modulus result obtained at different sputtering deposition temperature. This study also provides the relation of AlN thin films’ crystallinity with the hardness of the deposited films.

中文翻译：

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使用反应性射频磁控溅射等离子体生长 a 轴 AlN 薄膜的结构和机械性能

目的

本文旨在报告溅射等离子体沉积时间对 a 轴取向氮化铝 (AlN) 薄膜结构和机械性能的影响。

设计/方法/方法

AlN 薄膜是使用射频磁控溅射等离子体在硅基板上制备的，没有任何外部加热和不同的沉积时间。使用 X 射线衍射 (XRD)、场发射扫描电子显微镜 (FESEM)、原子力显微镜 (AFM) 和纳米压痕技术对薄膜进行表征。

发现

XRD 结果表明，AlN 薄膜在不同的沉积时间沿 (100) AlN 平面高度取向，表明 a 轴优选取向。所有的 AlN 薄膜都表现出具有纤锌矿结构的六边形 AlN。使用纳米压痕仪测量具有不同沉积时间的 AlN 薄膜的硬度和杨氏模量。Si 上的 AlN 膜的测量硬度在 14.1 至 14.7 GPa 的范围内。使用 AFM 测量的表面粗糙度和晶粒尺寸表明两者都取决于沉积时间。

原创性/价值

这项工作的新颖之处在于比较了在不同溅射沉积温度下获得的硬度和杨氏模量结果。该研究还提供了 AlN 薄膜的结晶度与沉积薄膜硬度的关系。