Structural and surface analysis of chemical vapor deposited boron doped aluminum nitride thin film on aluminum substrates

Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process was conducted for synthesis of boron (B) doped aluminum nitride (B-AlN) thin films on aluminum (Al) substrates. To prevent melting of the Al substrates, film deposition was carried out at 500 °C using tert-buthylamine (^tBuNH₂) solution delivered through a bubbler as a nitrogen source instead of ammonia gas (NH₃). B-AlN thin films were prepared from three precursors at changing process parameters (gas mixture ratio). X-ray diffraction (XRD) technique and atomic force microscope (AFM) were used to investigate the structural and surface properties of B-AlN thin films on Al substrates. The prepared thin films were polycrystalline and composed of mixed phases {cubic (1 1 1) and hexagonal (1 0 0)} of AlN and BN with different orientations. Intensive AlN peak of high intensity was observed for the film deposited at a flow rate of the total gas mixture of 25 sccm. As the total gas mixture flow decreased from 60 sccm to 25 sccm, the crystallite size of AlN phase increased and the dislocation density decreased. Reduced surface roughness (10.4 nm) was detected by AFM for B-AlN thin film deposited on Al substrate using the lowest flow rate (25 sccm) of the total gas mixture.