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Surface Morphology and Microstructure of Pulsed DC Magnetron Sputtered Piezoelectric AlN and AlScN Thin Films
Author(s) -
Lu Yuan,
Reusch Markus,
Kurz Nicolas,
Ding Anli,
Christoph Tim,
Kirste Lutz,
Lebedev Vadim,
Žukauskaitė Agnė
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
physica status solidi (a)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.532
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1862-6319
pISSN - 1862-6300
DOI - 10.1002/pssa.201700559
Subject(s) - materials science , microstructure , thin film , piezoresponse force microscopy , scanning electron microscope , sputter deposition , piezoelectricity , pulsed dc , piezoelectric coefficient , composite material , nitride , substrate (aquarium) , surface roughness , sputtering , optoelectronics , layer (electronics) , nanotechnology , ferroelectricity , dielectric , oceanography , geology
Reactive pulsed DC magnetron co‐sputtering is used to grow piezoelectric aluminum nitride (AlN) and aluminum scandium nitride (AlScN) thin films on Si(001) substrates. By using grazing incidence X‐ray diffraction (GIXRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM), we investigate how the microstructure and the presence of misoriented grains affect the piezoelectric properties of the material. N 2 concentration and target‐to‐substrate distance are finely tuned to achieve thin films without misoriented grains, resulting in Al 0.87 Sc 0.13 N thin films with low roughness, high degree of c ‐axis orientation, homogenous polarity, and piezoelectric coefficient d 33 = −12.3 pC/N.