Scandium-doped aluminum nitride thin films by scanning combinatorial pulsed laser deposition

By optimizing the deposition conditions and employing an AlN seed layer, Sc-doped AlN thin films with Sc concentrations up to 26% were successfully fabricated on Pt/Al 2 O 3 (0001) using combinatorial pulsed laser deposition (PLD). It was found that the critical parameters for obtaining high-crystalline AlN films are moderate growth temperatures and an appropriate background N2 partial pressure. However, it was difficult to achieve crystal growth of Sc-doped AlN on Pt/Al 2 O 3 by optimizing the growth conditions alone. It was found that the insertion of an approximately 5 nm-thick AlN seed layer effectively promoted the crystallization of Sc-doped AlN films. The resulting PLD-grown Sc-doped AlN films exhibited high crystallinity, and lattice parameters comparable to those of the reported films deposited by sputtering.