Growth of Aluminum Nitride Films on Silicon by Electron-Cyclotron-Resonance-Assisted Molecular Beam Epitaxy

Aluminum nitride thin films have been prepared on silicon substrates by electron-cyclotron-resonance plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy (ECR-MBE). Epitaxial AlN films have been obtained by Al evaporation and 250 eV nitrogen ion irradiation on a clean Si surface at 700°C. AlN films with two kinds of crystal orientations were grown epitaxially on Si(111). The dominant one is AlN (0001)//Si(111); AlN[010]//Si[11] and the another one is AlN(010)//Si(111); AlN[0001]//Si[11].