Correlation between the oxygen content and the morphology of AlN films grown by r.f. magnetron sputtering

Valerie Brien (1, 2) , P Pigeat (2)

1 CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
2 IJL - Institut Jean Lamour

To understand the influence of the oxygen on the crystallography of AlN thin films made by physical vapour deposition r.f. magnetron, three different oxygen contents AlN films were prepared at room temperature for two values of the energy of the species building the film (low energy obtained by using : low power W, high pressure P; high energy obtained by using : high W, low P). It is observed that the crystalline morphology of the films not only depends on the process parameters (W and P), but is also particularly related to the oxygen content in the films. Regardless of P and W used here, low oxygen contents films (5 atomic %) are columnar. The increase in oxygen content (15 to 30 atomic %) reduces the grain size without creating phases like Al2O3 or AlNO. And very rich oxygen films (50 atomic %) are amorphous. From this study assumptions are made for the localization of oxygen atoms in the AlN phase.

Mots clés: Semiconducting III-V materials; Nitrides; Defects; Physical vapor deposition processes; Crystal morphology

Domaines: Matériaux; Science des matériaux [cond-mat.mtrl-sci]; Chimie inorganique

Valerie Brien, P Pigeat. Correlation between the oxygen content and the morphology of AlN films grown by r.f. magnetron sputtering . Journal of Crystal Growth, 2008. ⟨hal-01396547⟩