Structural and interfacial stabilities of epitaxial (11-20)-oriented wurtzite AlN films grown on lattice-matched MnS buffered Si(100)

Epitaxial growth of non-polar wurtzite (11-20) AlN thin films was achieved on a Si(100) substrate by inserting an MnS buffer layer. The a-plane AlN film and MnS buffer layer were fabricated by pulsed KrF excimer laser deposition, and their micro- and interfacial atomic structures were investigated by transmission electron microscopy. The epitaxial relationship between films and substrate was found to be AlN(11-20)MnS(100)Si(100) with in-plane alignment of AlN1-101]MnS011]Si011]. AlN11-20] grown on Si is perpendicular to AlN0001] and parallel to MnS100]. The MnS/Si interface is abrupt enough to inherit the orientation of the Si(100) surface. A sharp interface was also observed for AlN/MnS without any intermediate layer. PACS 81.05.Ea; 81.05.Zx; 81.15.Fg; 68.37.Lp