A study on crystalline morphology of an ain thick film grown on the trench-parterned α-AI₂O₃ using X-ray difraction

Abstract

The crystalline morphology such as domain texturing, lattice tilting in a thick aluminum nitride (AIN) film grown on a trench-patterned α-AI₂O₃ template was investigated using X-ray diffraction measurements. The results clearly demonstrated that the trench-patterned template has a strong influence on the crystalline morphology in the thick AIN film. The crystalline morphology is anisotropic between the [1120] and [1100] directions. The AIN film contains several crystal domains, arranged along the [1120] direction and tilted toward each other in this direction but parallel to each other in the [1100] direction. These results can be attributed to the influence of the growth mechanism of the AIN film on the trench-patterned α-AI₂O₃ template and the elastic relaxation of strain along the growth direction.