IN-SITU HEED STRUCTURE-ANALYSIS OF ALN(X) FILMS GROWN BY THE SIMULTANEOUS USE OF A RADICAL BEAM SOURCE AND ICB TECHNIQUE

A reactive ionized cluster beam technique (R-ICB) which was composed o f a conventional ICB source and a radical beam source has been used to deposit stable and metastable polycrystalline AlN(x) (0 less-than-or- equal-to x less-than-or-equal-to 1) films. Using in-situ high energy e lectron diffraction (HEED) at grazing incidence geometry, crystallogra phic properties such as structure, preferred orientation and interplan ar d-spacing values were determined and the relation to deposition par ameters investigated. It could be shown that the simultaneous use of t he ICB technique and a radical beam source to separately control the k inetic energy of the Al ions and the dissociation rate of molecular ni trogen, allows AlN films to be deposited with variable composition and crystal structures. In-situ HEED used in the transmission mode is an effective tool to investigate the crystallography of growing compound films such as AlN(x).