Increased electromechanical coupling in w−ScxAl1−xN

AlN is challenged as the material choice in important thin film electroacoustic devices for modern wireless communication applications. We present the promise of superior electromechanical coupling (kt2), in w−ScxAl1−xN by studying its dielectric properties. w−ScxAl1−xN (0≤x≤0.3) thin films grown by dual reactive magnetron sputtering exhibited low dielectric losses along with minor increased dielectric constant (ε). Ellipsometry measurements of the high frequency ε showed good agreement with density function perturbation calculations. Our data show that kt2 will improve from 7% to 10% by alloying AlN with up to 20 mol % ScN.