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ALUMINUM NITRIDE LAYERS PREPARED BY DC/RF MAGNETRON SPUTTERING

B. Mednikarov1,* , G. Spasov1, Tz. Babeva1

Affiliation

  1. Central Laboratory of Photoprocesses – Bulgarian Academy of Sciences Acad. G. Bonchev str. Bl 109, 1113 Sofia, Bulgaria

Abstract

Thin films of AlN are deposited by DC/RF reactive magnetron sputtering in Ar-N2 gas mixture. The properties of the layers are investigated by AES, SEM, LAXRD, and microindentation (hardness measurement). The optical constants (n, k, R, Tr) are measured with a Carry-5E spectrophotometer. A strong stoichiometry and monodispersity of the films is found. LAXRD has shown a hexagonal {0002} predominant orientation when the layers were deposited on silicon (100) substrates at ts ‡ 200 oC. The refractive index (n) is 2.08 2.04 for the wavelengths from 400 to 900 nm. The microhardness (Knoop) for a film thickness ‡ 2000 nm is 6-7 GPa. The AlN layers are employed as protective films for the production of reference Al mirrors for spectrophotometers..

Keywords

AlN, Magnetron sputtering, Optical properties, AES, SEM.

Submitted at: April 25, 2005
Accepted at: May 26, 2005

Citation

B. Mednikarov, G. Spasov, Tz. Babeva, ALUMINUM NITRIDE LAYERS PREPARED BY DC/RF MAGNETRON SPUTTERING, Journal of Optoelectronics and Advanced Materials Vol. 7, Iss. 3, pp. 1421-1427 (2005)