Ion-beam-produced Damage and its Stability in AIN Films

Date

2002

Authors

Kucheyev, Sergei
Williams, James
Zou, Jin
Jagadish, Chennupati
Pophristic, M
Guo, S
Ferguson, I T
Manasreh, M O

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

American Institute of Physics (AIP)

Abstract

Structural characteristics of single-crystal wurtzite AlN epilayers (grown on sapphire substrates) bombarded with 300 keV197Au+ ions at room and liquid-nitrogen temperatures (RT and LN2) are studied by a combination of Rutherford backscattering/channeling spectrometry and cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy. Results reveal extremely strong dynamic annealing of ion-beam-generated defects in AlN. Lattice amorphization is not observed even for very large doses of keV heavy ions at LN2. An increase in irradiation temperature from LN2 to RT has a relatively small effect on the production of stable structural damage in AlN. In contrast to the case of AlxGa1-xN with x≤0.6, neither damage saturation in the crystal bulk (below the random level) nor preferential surface disordering is revealed for AlN. Results also show that structural lattice disorder produced in AlN by high-dose keV heavy-ion bombardment is stable to rapid thermal annealing at temperatures as high as 1000°C.

Description

Keywords

Keywords: AlN; AlN films; Cross sectional transmission electron microscopy; Dynamic annealing; High dose; Irradiation temperature; Lattice disorders; Liquid nitrogen temperature; Rutherford backscattering/channeling; Sapphire substrates; Single-crystal wurtzite; St

Citation

Source

Journal of Applied Physics

Type

Journal article

Book Title

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2037-12-31