Characteristics of single-crystal AlN films grown on ferromagnetic metal substrates

✍ Scribed by Okamoto, K. ;Inoue, S. ;Matsuki, N. ;Kim, T.-W. ;Fujioka, H. ;Oshima, M.

• Book ID: 105363404
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2005
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 138 KB
• Volume: 202
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0031-8965
• DOI: 10.1002/pssa.200521231

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

We have demonstrated the first single‐crystal growth of AlN films on Fe substrates using pulsed laser deposition and in‐vestigated their structural properties. Stepped and terraced surfaces of the Fe(110) substrates have been achieved by UHV annealing. Although a low quality AlN film, with ran‐domly oriented polycrystalline grains, grows at a substrate temperature of 510 °C, a single‐crystal AlN film is achieved by lowering the growth temperature down to 430 °C. The dis‐tributions of crystal orientations in the tilt and the twist direc‐ tions for a AlN film measured by electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) are 0.26º and 0.58º, respectively. Neither 30º rotational domains nor cubic phase domains exist in the AlN films. We have also found that the intermixing reactions between AlN and the Fe substrates are fully suppressed and the heterointerface is atomically abrupt. These results indicate that low temperature PLD growth technique allows us to grow single‐crystal AlN on ferromagnetic substrates with an atomically abrupt interface. (© 2005 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)