Structural and optical properties of AlN/Si system

Aluminum nitride (AlN) is a wide band gap III–V semiconductor material which is often used for optical applications. Thin films of aluminum nitride were deposited by ion beam sputtering in an Ar–N2 atmosphere on Si (1 0 0). For film preparation, the N2 flow was kept at 5 sccm and the ratio of N2 and Ar was 4:1. The films have been characterized by Grazing Incidence X-ray Diffraction (GIXRD), X-ray Reflectometry (XRR), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and optical spectroscopy. GIXRD shows that the structure of the as-deposited sample of AlN is hexagonal. It is observed that neither the ion-beam-induced dissociation of the nitride film nor the enhanced nitrogen diffusion across the interface takes place after Au ion irradiation. XRR was used to determine the thickness of the films. The reflectance of the irradiated films increases in the range 200–280 nm. UV–vis spectra were taken in Kubelka Munk (KM) units for as-deposited and irradiated samples. The band gap was calculated for both types of samples, which shows that the band gap of irradiated films of aluminum nitride decreases due to the increase in metal content at the surface. AFM confirms that the roughness of aluminum nitride increases by irradiation.