AVS 53rd International Symposium
    Thin Film Thursday Sessions
       Session TF-ThM

Paper TF-ThM1
Tilted Fiber Texture in Aluminum Nitride Thin Films

Thursday, November 16, 2006, 8:00 am, Room 2022

Session: Fundamentals in Thin Film Deposition
Presenter: D. Deniz, University of New Hampshire
Authors: J.M.E. Harper, University of New Hampshire
D. Deniz, University of New Hampshire
J.W. Hoehn, Seagate Technology Inc.
F. Chen, Seagate Technology Inc.
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We report a strong dependence of fiber texture tilt angle on the angle of deposition and gas composition in aluminum nitride (AlN) thin films prepared by reactive magnetron sputtering in N@sub 2@/Ar mixtures. Texture distributions were measured using x-ray pole figures. For fully nitrided films, deposited with N@sub 2@ flow of 15% of the total flow, the AlN c-axis fiber tilt angle increases steadily with deposition angle, with the c-axis approximately aligned with the deposition direction. At a deposition angle of 64@sup o@ from normal, a second population of grains appears with c-axis perpendicular to the main population, corresponding to a-axis alignment with the deposition direction, as reported by Rodriguez-Navarro et al.@footnote 1@ We measured the c-axis AlN tilt angle as a function of N@sub 2@ flow ratio for a deposition angle of 42@sup o@ from normal, and found that the c-axis remains perpendicular to the substrate for a N@sub 2@ flow ratio up to 12%, and then abruptly shifts towards the deposition direction for a N@sub 2@ flow ratio above 12%. We also identified a range of deposition parameters at lower N@sub 2@ flow in which an amorphous phase of AlN is formed. We attribute the tilted fiber texture to the energetic atom flux causing less damage and resputtering in grains oriented with open channeling directions, compared with non-channeling directions in AlN. The abrupt change in fiber tilt angle vs. gas composition is attributed to adatom mobility being quenched above 12% N@sub 2@ flow. @FootnoteText@ @footnote 1@A. Rodriguez-Navarro, W. Otano-Rivera, J.M. Garcia-Ruiz, R. Messier, and L.J. Pilione, J. Mater. Res., Vol. 12, No. 7, 1689 (1997).