Stress and piezoelectric properties of aluminum nitride thin films deposited onto metal electrodes by pulsed direct current reactive sputtering
Polycrystalline aluminum nitride thin films were deposited onto platinum, aluminum, and titanium electrodes by reactive magnetron sputtering in the pulsed direct current mode. The films exhibited all a columnar microstructure and a c-axis texture. The built-in stress and the piezoelectric properties of these films were studied as a function of both the processing conditions and the electrode material. Stress was found to be very much dependent on the growth conditions, and values ranging from strong compression to high tension were observed. The piezoelectric d(33,f) coefficient was shown to rely on substrate quality and ionic bombardment: The nucleation surface must be stable with regard to the nitrogen plasma and present a hexagonal symmetry and, on the other hand, enough energy must be delivered to the growing film through ionic bombardment. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.
WOS:000169149900081
2001
89
11
6389
6395
Dubois, Ma Swiss Fed Inst Technol, EPFL, Dept Mat, Ceram Lab, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland Swiss Fed Inst Technol, EPFL, Dept Mat, Ceram Lab, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
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Cited References Count:24
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