Hot-wall low pressure chemical vapor deposition growth and characterization of AlN thin films

Hot-wall low pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) of highly crystalline epitaxial thin-film AlN grown on silicon (1 1 1) substrates is reported for the first time. Deposition was carried out in a modified commercial LPCVD at 1000 °C and 2 torr. Preflow time for the aluminum precursor, trimethylaluminum, was varied to nucleate Al, and the resulting variation in X-ray diffraction (XRD) crystalline AlN peaks is presented. With a 30 s dichlorosilane (SiH2Cl2) pretreatment at 700 °C and the optimal TMAl preflow time, the FWHM of the resulting film was 1116 arcsec for the AlN (0 0 2) 2θ-ω peak, and the AlN (0 0 2) peak had an omega rocking curve FWHM of 1.6°. This AlN film was shown to be epitaxially aligned to the Si (1 1 1) substrate.