We have grown aluminum nitride thin films on quartz and Si(111) substr
ates by reactive partially ionized beam deposition, using Al as evapor
ation material and N-2 as reactive gas, respectively. We show the resu
lts of film characterization by Fourier transform infrared spectroscop
y, ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy
and X-ray diffraction, which establish the growth of aluminum nitride
thin films at the substrate temperature of 200 degrees C. X-ray diffra
ction results show that the acceleration voltage is a major parameter
influencing the crystal structure of the films.