Thermal conductivity of AlN thin films deposited by reactive DC magnetron sputtering on different substrates using ultra-fast transient hot strip technique

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In the frame of this work, we report a profound insight into the thermal conductivity (k) of aluminum nitride (AlN) thin films deposited on AlN-molecular beam epitaxy (MBE)/Si(111) and AlN-Kyma/Si(111) substrates at low temperatures (<200 °C) using reactive direct current magnetron sputtering (DCMS). Our concern is not on the thermal properties at the nanoscale, but rather on relating thermal macroscopic properties to the microstructure for submicronic to micronic AlN films. As the mean free path for AlN material is about 100 nm, the thickness of our films lies between 400 nm and 2 μm. The k measurements were conducted using the ultra-fast transient hot strip technique. It was found that the k values of the deposited films change depending on both the substrate type and the film thickness. For the 500 nm AlN thick film, k value was about 250 W m−1 K−1 for AlN-DCMS films grown on 10 nm AlN-MBE/Si against 90 W m−1 K−1 for those deposited on 200 nm AlN-Kyma/Si. The thermal boundary resistance has been computed equal to (0.25 ± 0.08) × 10−9 K m2 W−1 on 10 nm AlN-MBE/Si against (3.56 ± 1.50) × 10−9 K m2 W−1 on 200 nm AlN-Kyma/Si. Additionally, both pole figures and high resolution transmission electron microscopy confirm k results. In fact, pole figures confirm the good crystal quality of the film on both substrates, but HR-TEM analyses show that the AlN films grown on 10 nm AlN-MBE/Si template exhibit good crystalline quality with an epitaxial regrowth and abrupt interface compared to those obtained for 200 nm AlN-Kyma/Si. It also appears that the thermal boundary resistance plays a major role in the thermal properties of AlN films.