Textured hexagonal and cubic phases of AlN films deposited on Si (100) by DC magnetron sputtering and high power impulse magnetron sputtering

In this work we are interested in analyzing the texture of aluminum nitride thin films deposited by direct-current magnetron sputtering and high-power impulse magnetron sputtering on silicon (100) substrates. The texture characterization of aluminum nitride films was performed by X-ray diffraction. The pole figures have indicated that in both methods direct-current magnetron sputtering and high-power impulse magnetron sputtering, the microstructure is a (0001) strong fiber texture, with a tilted c-axis in the case of direct-current magnetron sputtering. Moreover, the texture analysis allowed the characterization of the cubic phase of aluminum nitride, which most likely constitutes a transition layer between the hexagonal aluminum nitride and the silicon substrate. The misfits' calculations between the different structure cells (silicon, hexagonal aluminum nitride and cubic aluminum nitride) confirm that the growth of the hexagonal aluminum nitride in the form of (0001) fiber is facilitated by this transition layer.