Growth of high-quality AlN films on sapphire substrate by introducing voids through growth-mode modification

[Display omitted] •Voids are introduced into AlN film grown on FSS through growth mode transition.•Dislocation filter and strain relief are achieved with the introducing of voids.•A 3 μm-thick AlN film grown on FSS using this strategy is nearly stress free. We demonstrate the achieving of high-quality AlN films on flat sapphire substrate (FSS) by introducing voids during growth. Voids are embedded into AlN epilayers through a growth-mode transition from island growth to step flow growth. Such voids significantly facilitated the underlying dislocations annihilation as demonstrated by the transmission electron microscopy (TEM) image. For the 3 μm-thick AlN film grown on FSS, the full width at half maximum of the X-ray rocking curve was 57/260 arcsec for (0 0 2)/(1 0 2) reflection and a threading dislocation density of 1.7 × 108 cm−2 was determined from plain-view TEM image. Moreover, the voids provided an additional stress relief channel in the AlN film grown on FSS, resulting in a tensile stress comparable to that of grown on nano-patterned sapphire substrate (NPSS). The measured lattice constants and Raman shift of AlN-E2 (high) peak verified the 3 μm-thick AlN film grown on FSS is nearly stress free at room temperature. Taking advantages of the deliberately embedded voids, a crack-free and atomically flat AlN film was grown on FSS. The strategy put forward in this work to obtaining high-quality AlN films on FSS is much cost-efficient, which is believed to hold great promise for commercialization in AlN-based devices.