Growth Kinetic studies of ion beam sputtered AlN-thin films: Effect of reactive assistance of nitrogen plasma

摘要

Reactive dual ion beam sputter deposition of AlN thin films was carried outfor the analysis of surface growth characteristics by Atomic Force Microscopy.The variation of roughness as a function of deposition time was analysed byDynamic Scaling Theory (DST). Two distinct exponents, static and dynamic wereused to unravel the film growth characteristics. As the deposition timeincreased, static scaling exponent decreased gradually and substrate surfacecoverage was increased which is indicated by a decrease in critical length Lc.The rms roughness of the film was increased from 1.99 to 3.42 nm as thedeposition time was increased from 3 minutes to 15 minutes. Dynamic scalingexponent was found to be 0.36. During the growth, surface diffusion (n = 4)becomes the major roughening phenomenon while Bulk diffusion (n = 3) turns intothe dominating smoothening phenomenon.