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Room-temperature growth of ultrasmooth AlN epitaxial thin films on sapphire with NiO buffer layer

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2011

Atsushi Sasaki ,
Jin Liu ,
Wakana Hara ,
Shusaku Akiba ,
Keisuke Saito ,
Tokuo Yodo  and
Mamoru Yoshimoto
Atsushi Sasaki
Affiliation:
Department of Innovative and Engineered Materials, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Midori, Yokohama 226-8502, Japan
Jin Liu
Affiliation:
Department of Innovative and Engineered Materials, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Midori, Yokohama 226-8502, Japan
Wakana Hara
Affiliation:
Department of Innovative and Engineered Materials, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Midori, Yokohama 226-8502, Japan
Shusaku Akiba
Affiliation:
Department of Innovative and Engineered Materials, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Midori, Yokohama 226-8502, Japan
Keisuke Saito
Affiliation:
Bruker AXS K.K., Kanagawa-ku, Yokohama 221-0022, Japan
Tokuo Yodo
Affiliation:
Electronic Information and Communication Engineering, Osaka Institute of Technology, Ohmiya, Osaka 535-8585, Japan
Mamoru Yoshimoto*
Affiliation:
Materials and Structures Laboratory, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Midori, Yokohama 226-8503, Japan
*
a) Address all correspondence to this author. e-mail: m.yoshimoto@msl.titech.ac.jp
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Abstract

Room-temperature epitaxy of AlN thin films on sapphire (0001) substrates was achieved by pulsed laser deposition using an epitaxial NiO ultrathin buffer layer (approximately 6 nm thick). Four-circle x-ray diffraction analysis indicates a double heteroepitaxial structure of AlN (0001)/NiO(111)/sapphire (0001) with the epitaxial relationship of AlN [10-10] ‖ NiO [11-2] ‖ sapphire [11-20]. The surface morphology of room-temperature grown AlN thin films was found to be atomically smooth and nanostepped, reflecting the surface of the ultrasmooth sapphire substrate with 0.2-nm-high steps.

Keywords

CeramicPulsed laser deposition (PLD)Epitaxy
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Materials Research , Volume 19 , Issue 9 , September 2004 , pp. 2725 - 2729
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2004

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