Two-step reactive sputtering of piezoelectric AlN thin films

Reactive Sputtering of Aluminum Nitride (002) Thin Films for Piezoelectric Applications: A Review

“…It was also reported that when the sputtering pressure increased, the collision between sputtering particles and Ar ions led to the formation of AlN (100) films [ 64 ]. Both observations have been reported by many researchers in Table 2 such as in references [ 17 , 22 , 28 , 35 , 39 , 41 , 45 ].…”

“…For each parameter, selected works that investigate its effect will be mentioned. In addition to using the works that were already summarized in Table 2 , i.e., references [ 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 ], we also highlight additional articles that are not included in that table i.e., references [ 63 , 64 , 65 , 66 , 67 , 68 , 69 , …”

“…One such works worth being mentioned in details herein. Cherng et al [ 45 ] utilized a two-step deposition process to enhance the quality of deposited AlN on Si (100) using pulsed DC reactive sputtering. They used a smaller pressure of 0.8 mTorr for the initial nucleation for a period of 10 min.…”

Highly textured growth of AlN films on sapphire by magnetron sputtering for high temperature surface acoustic wave applications

“…The result is that the sputtered Al atoms retain most of their energy when they land on the surface of the growing film. 19,20 They transfer a substantial amount of energy onto the growing film and thus increase the mobility of the adatoms, allowing them to move to the lattice sites toward equilibrium, thus forming a closest-packed ͑002͒ plane with the lowest surface energy.…”

“…3 can be explained by the peening effect. 19,[21][22][23] At high N 2 concentration, since a N atom is lighter than that of Al, the reflection coefficient of N ions is high enough so that a large fraction of the N ions bombarding the Al target are neutralized and reflected off the target surface immediately upon impact, resulting in additional bombardments of energetic N neutrals onto the growing film. This effect produces a film with a high preferred ͑002͒ orientation.…”