Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-zzh7m Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T11:45:36.909Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

AFM Study of Surface Morphology of Aluminum Nitride Thin Films

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 February 2011

Yoshihisa Watanabe
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National Defense academy, 1-10-20 Hashirimizu, Yokosuka, Kanagawa 239, Japan
Yoshikazu Nakamura
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National Defense academy, 1-10-20 Hashirimizu, Yokosuka, Kanagawa 239, Japan
Shigekazu Hirayama
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National Defense academy, 1-10-20 Hashirimizu, Yokosuka, Kanagawa 239, Japan
Yuusaku Naota
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National Defense academy, 1-10-20 Hashirimizu, Yokosuka, Kanagawa 239, Japan
Get access

Abstract

Aluminum nitride (AlN) thin films have been synthesized by ion-beam assisted deposition method. Film deposition has been performed on the substrates of silicon single crystal, soda-lime glass and alumin A. the influence of the substrate roughness on the film roughness is studied. the substrate temperature has been kept at room temperature and 473K and the kinetic energy of the incident nitrogen ion beam and the deposition rate have been fixed to 0.5 keV and 0.07 nm/s, respectively. the microstructure of the synthesized films has been examined by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and the surface morphology has been observed by atomic force microscopy(AFM). IN the XRD patterns of films synthesized at both room temperature and 473K, the diffraction line indicating the alN (10*0) can be discerned and the broad peak composed of two lines indicating the a1N (00*2) and a1N (10*1) planes is also observed. aFM observations for 100 nm films reveal that (1) the surface of the films synthesized on the silicon single crystal and soda-lime glass substrates is uniform and smooth on the nanometer scale, (2) the average roughness of the films synthesized on the alumina substrate is similar to that of the substrate, suggesting the evaluation of the average roughness of the film itself is difficult in the case of the rough substrate, and (3) the average roughness increases with increasing the substrate temperature.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Wauk, M. T. and Winslow, D. K., Appl. Phys. Lett. 13, 286 (1968).Google Scholar
2 Wang, X. D., Jiong, W., M. G. Norton and Hipps, K. W., Thin Solid Films 251,121 (1994).Google Scholar
3 Watanabe, Y., Nakamura, Y., Hirayama, S. and Naota, Y., Proc. 8th int. Microelectronics Conf., Omiya, 1994, pp.5760.Google Scholar
4 Nakamura, Y., Watanabe, Y., Hirayama, S. and Naota, Y., Surface and Coating Technologies 68/69, 203 (1994).Google Scholar
5 Watanabe, Y., Nakamura, Y., Hirayama, S. and Naota, Y., Proc. 8th CIMTEC-World Ceramics Congress and Forum on New Materials, Florence, 1994, in press.Google Scholar
6 Andoh, Y., Suzuki, Y., Matsuda, K., Satoh, M. and Fujimoto, F., Nucl. INstruments and Methods B 6, 111 (1985).Google Scholar