Development of High Performance Piezoelectric AlScN for Microelectromechanical Systems: Towards a Ferroelectric Wurtzite Structure

The usage of piezoelectric and ferroelectric thin films is a promising approach to significantly increase the functionality of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) as well as of microelectronics in general. Since the device performance thus becomes directly connected to the properties of the functional film, new as well as improved piezoelectric and ferroelectric materials can allow substantial technological innovation.

This dissertation focused on enhancing the piezoelectric properties of AlN by forming solid solutions with ScN and includes the first experimental observation of ferroelectricity in AlScN, and thus the first discovery of ferroelectricity in a III-V semiconductor based material in general.

Compared to AlN, piezoelectric coefficients that are up to 450% higher were realized in AlScN, with d33f reaching a maximum of 17.2 pm/V and e31f reaching 3.2 C/m². In this context, the identification and subsequent rectification of a major morphological instability in AlScN that becomes more pronounced with increasing Sc content was reported. Thus, films free of morphological inhomogeneities with close to ideal piezoelectric properties could be deposited up to 0.43% ScN. Control of the intrinsic film stress was demonstrated over a wide range from strongly tensile to strongly compressive for all the investigated Sc contents. The improved piezoelectric coefficients together with the possibility of stress control allowed the fabrication of suspended MEMS structures with electromechanical coupling coefficients improved by more than 320% relative to AlN.

Ferroelectrictiy in AlScN was observed starting at ScN contents of 27%. Its emergence was connected to the same gradual evolution from the initial wurtzite structure to the layered hexagonal structure that also causes the enhanced piezoelectric coefficients while increasing the Sc content. Ferroelectric AlScN allowed the first experimental observation of the spontaneous polarization of the wurtzite structure and confirms that this polarization is more than one order of magnitude above most previous theoretical predictions.

The large, tunable coercive fields and polarization constants together with the broad linear strain intervals, a paraelectric transition temperature above 600°C as well as the technological compatibility of the III-nitrides lead to a combination of exceptional properties that was previously inaccessible in ferroelectric thin films.