AlN thin film deposition using a radio-frequency beam assisted pulsed laser deposition

Aluminium nitride is one of the compounds intensively studied because of its attractive properties: large direct bang-gap, large thermal conductivity, high acoustic velocity, high melting point, high Knoop hardness, low dielectric loss. Pulsed laser deposition was found to be a very attractive technique for obtaining films with desired properties for different applications: AlN layers can be obtained by ablation of a pure Al target in reactive atmosphere containing nitrogen and argon. The influence of the deposition parameters (gas pressure, laser fluence, Radio Frequency power) on the structure and morphology of the deposited layers was studied. Laser plasma and RF beam were characterised by optical emission spectroscopy: a correlation between the species concentration and film composition was done.