Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
10401019 Diamond and Related Materials 2005 5 Pages PDF
Abstract
Oxygen-free aluminum carbonitride thin films were grown on Si (100) substrates by reactive magnetron sputtering of Al target with the gas mixture of Ar, CH4 and N2 as precursor. A complementary set of techniques including X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometry, X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy was employed for the characterization of the deposit chemistry, structure as well as morphology. Film growth proceeds along the preferred [0001] direction with the basal planes twisted because of the frustration in arranging the building blocks for aluminum carbonitrides. Under given conditions, the deposits show a declining tendency of crystallization with increasing carbon content. Strong covalent bonding and structural disorder give the film's extreme mechanical rigidity: Berkovich hardness is over 27.0 GPa for all the deposits, and an extreme value of 53.4 GPa was measured in Al47C20N33.
Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering Engineering Electrical and Electronic Engineering
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