The sputtering of AlN films on top of on- and off-axis 3C-SiC (111)/Si (111) substrates at various substrate temperatures

AlN thin films have been sputtered on top of the on-axis and 4° off-axis 3C-SiC (111)/Si (111) substrates at various substrate temperatures. The grazing angle incident XRD scans show that all films have major peak at (002) plane and minor peaks at (101) and (102) planes. The AlN films are further characterized in terms of the FWHM of the rocking curve, surface morphology and deposition rate. We observed that the increasing substrate temperature improve the crystal quality of the AlN (002) films, but it has minimal impact on the surface roughness and deposition rate. We also extracted the values for the bi-axial stress, the grain size and the piezoelectric coefficient. Overall, the off-axis 3C-SiC/Si (111) substrates provide a better template for the sputtering of AlN (002) films in term of better crystal quality, lower surface roughness and lower bi-axial stress.