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Zirconium aluminum nitride thin films (Zr 0.11 Al 0.89 N) were prepared on different substrates using unbalanced DC reactive magnetron co-sputtering. The influence of sputtering atmosphere, including N 2 /Ar-flow ratio and their total pressure, on the crystalline structure and the electrical properties of the Zr 0.11 Al 0.89 N films has been investigated. In this work, the optimal N 2 /Ar-flow ratio is 1:1 and the optimal total pressure is 0.5 Pa. The resultant Zr 0.11 Al 0.89 N films have a wurtzite structure that is preferentially oriented along the c-axis and have uniform grains. The dielectric constant, dielectric loss, leakage current density and resistivity of the Zr 0.11 Al 0.89 N films reach ~ 16, ~ 0.01 (in a frequency range of 10 3 –10 6 Hz), 3.0 × 10 − 8 A/cm 2 and 1.92 × 10 12 Ω·cm, respectively, which are all superior to those under suboptimal conditions. Moreover, the Zr 0.11 Al 0.89 N films exhibit higher dielectric constants, as well as much lower dielectric loss and leakage current density compared to that of pure AlN films. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highly c-axis oriented aluminum nitride films have been successfully grown by DC magnetron reactive sputtering with unbalanced magnetic fields at room temperature. It is shown that the application of unbalanced magnetic fields can improve the extent of preferential growth along the c-axis, and form AlN films with denser, larger grains and smaller surface roughness, compared to that grown with balanced magnetic fields. The AlN films prepared under optimized growth conditions have a dielectric constant of approximately 10.5 and a dielectric loss of 0.02 in the frequency range of 10 3 –10 6 Hz, and a leakage current of <1 × 10 −7 A/cm 2 at 5 V bias voltage, all the dielectric and insulating properties being superior to the films synthesized with balanced magnetic fields. In this work, the unbalanced magnetic fields are induced by adding an electromagnetic coil on the magnetron cathode. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]