AVS 47th International Symposium
    Semiconductors Thursday Sessions
       Session SC+SS+EL-ThA

Paper SC+SS+EL-ThA10
ScN Thin Films and Thin Film Devices

Thursday, October 5, 2000, 5:00 pm, Room 306

Session: III-Nitride Growth and Nucleation
Presenter: X. Bai, Ohio University
Authors: X. Bai, Ohio University
M.E. Kordesch, Ohio University
Correspondent: Click to Email
ScN films have been grown by plasma assisted physical vapor deposition (PAPVD) and reactive sputtering on quartz, sapphire, silicon and MgO. Growth temperature ranges from 300K to 1100K, thickness ranges from 50nm to 800nm. For PAPVD films, the XRD results show that ScN grows with (111) texture on quartz, both ScN (111) and (200) textures are observed on sapphire (0001), and (200) textured growth on Si (100). ScN films grown at 300 K are amorphous. Sputtered films show both (111) and (200) texture under various conditions. ScN grows epitaxially on MgO (100). Measurement of the lattice constant ranges from 0.442 nm on quartz to 0.458 nm on silicon. Temperature dependent condcutivity measurements show that ScN is a semiconductor. Intrinsic, p type and n type ScN can be synthesized, with carrier concentrations between 10@super12@ cm@super-3@ to 10@super22@cm@super-3@. The index of refraction is determined from IR measurements to be 2.46 ± 5%. The best optical bandgap result from our measurements is 2.26 eV. There are theoretical predictions of an indirect gap at about 1 eV, outside of our measurement range. ScN films have been used to fabricate p-n junctions, junctions with p and n type Si, and lattice mismatched isotype n-n junction with GaN. Functional ohmic contacts to ScN have been fabricated using Ti, Pd and Ni.