Investigation of the effects of room-temperature nitrogen implantation on the precipitation of aluminium nitride

Abstract

Aluminium single- and polycrystalline bulk material has been implanted with doses from 10 17 to 1.06 × 10 18 N/cm 2 at energies ranging from 25 to 75 keV. Implantation of polycrystalline material led to the formation of both hexagonal and cubic AlN. This precipitation was accompanied by the presence of bubbles at the surface, whose dimensions were dependent on the energy of implantation. The single-crystal material exhibited precipitation of (002) preferentially oriented hexagonal nitride, only for implantation along specific crystalline directions. The extent of bubble formation was also dependent on the relative substrate orientation.