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Measurement of the Oxygen and Impurity Distribution in Polycrystalline Aluminum Nitride with Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry
Author(s) -
Potter Gregg E.,
Knudsen Arne K.,
Tou James C.,
Choudhury Ashok
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
journal of the american ceramic society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.9
H-Index - 196
eISSN - 1551-2916
pISSN - 0002-7820
DOI - 10.1111/j.1151-2916.1992.tb04414.x
Subject(s) - secondary ion mass spectrometry , impurity , analytical chemistry (journal) , crystallite , materials science , nitride , grain boundary , thermal conductivity , ion , chemistry , mineralogy , microstructure , metallurgy , nanotechnology , organic chemistry , chromatography , layer (electronics) , composite material
The lattice oxygen content in sintered polycrystalline aluminum nitride substrates was measured via secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS). This was achieved by quantitative analysis of spatial and depth‐resolved ion images of polished specimens using the solid‐state standard addition method. The thermal conductivity of the polycrystalline material, measured with the laser flash technique, was found to be strongly correlated with the oxygen content in the AIN grains. This dependence is similar to that observed in single‐crystal studies and is consistent with the phonon scattering model of AIN thermal conductivity. Scanning electron microscopy and SIMS images of a variety of other species (C, F, Cl, Y, Si, and Ca) were also obtained. In general, impurities were localized within second‐phase regions although calcium was also found to be distributed uniformly along AIN grain boundaries. Other impurity constituents are also discussed.