Characterization of reactively sputtered c-axis orientation (Al, B)N films on diamond

In this research, we demonstrated the viability of oriented AlN layer that incorporated BN to enhance the texturing. Wurtzite (Al, B)N films were deposited on a diamond wafer (diamond film on Si wafer) by a co-sputtering technique. The preferred orientation structure is sensitive to sputtering control factors. The relationship between the microstructures and process conditions were examined with XRD, TEM and AFM analysis. The cross-section TEM images showed that amorphous and randomly aligned structures were produced in the initial sputtering period, but the higher c-axis orientation structure formed as the sputtering time increased. The thickness of the amorphous and randomly aligned layer decreased with increasing sputtering power, nitrogen concentration, substrate temperature and bias voltage. As the thickness of the amorphous and the randomly aligned layer decreased, an (Al,B)N film with higher film quality than AlN was observed.