Synthesis and Quality of Cr-doped AIN Thin Films Grown by RF Sputtering

The AlCrN films were grown by RF reactive sputtering method under the selected conditions. The Cr concentration was varied by the number of Cr pieces placed on the Al target. The sample quality has been studied by XRD, Auger spectroscopy, optical absorption and electrical resistant measurements. The XRD and Auger results show that the samples consist of a major phase with the $Al_{1-x}Cr_xN$ formula, which has a hexagonal structure, and a few percents at. of oxygen, which may form $Al_2O_3$. There exist the Cr clusters in the samples with high concentration of Cr. The optical absorption measurement provides the information about the band gap that relates strongly to the quality of samples. The quality of samples is also clearly reflected in electrical measurement, i.e., the temperature dependence of resistance exhibits a semiconductor characteristic only for the samples that have no Cr cluster. In these cases, the values of ionization energies $E_a$ can be derived from R(T) plots by using the function R(T) = Ro exp $(E_a/k_BT)$.