Low temperature deposition of crystalline AlN films by bias-enhanced Cat-CVD

In this work, crystalline AlN films were successfully synthesized on Si (100) by bias-enhanced catalytic chemical vapor deposition (Cat-CVD) at a low substrate temperature of 400 °C. The films were characterized by Fourier Transformation Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The results indicate that the bias plays an important role in enhancing the crystallinity of the AlN films. Furthermore, it was observed that the crystalline AlN films with small grains of 20 nm could be obtained under the negative bias of 400 V. The effects of the bias on the growth of the crystalline films and the grain size are discussed in detail.