Effect of nitrogen flow ratio on the structural and optical properties of aluminum nitride thin films

✍ Scribed by Shinho Cho

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2011
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 674 KB
• Volume: 326
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0022-0248
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jcrysgro.2011.01.092

✦ Synopsis

Aluminum nitride (AlN) films have been deposited on glass substrates at various nitrogen flow ratios by rf reactive magnetron sputtering. The AlN film deposited at 10% of nitrogen flow ratio shows a strongly c-axis preferred orientation with a crystalline size of 100 nm, thickness of 1100 nm, and band gap energy of 4.38 eV. The optimum crystallographic structure occurs at a nitrogen flow ratio of 100%, where a considerable crystallinity enhancement of the AlN film is observed. The band gap energies E g calculated by the Tauc model and parabolic bands are well described by a relationship, E g ¼ 10 À 3 X+4.39, where X is the nitrogen flow ratio. The results suggest that the nitrogen flow ratio plays a key role in growing the high-quality AlN films.