Stress in polycrystalline GaN films prepared by r.f sputtering

Undoped, Be-doped and Si-doped polycrystalline GaN films were deposited by R.F. sputtering onto fused silica substrates. The films were deposited at various deposition temperatures ranging from 300 K to 623 K and characterized by optical measurements while the microstructural information was obtained from SEM and XRD studies. The compositional study for the GaN film was carried out using SIMS. Residual stresses in these films were evaluated from the band tail of the absorption spectra as well as from direct measurements of hardness by commercially available depth sensing indentometer. It was observed that undoped GaN films had the highest hardness followed by that for Be-doped and Si-doped films. The values of hardness obtained form the above optical measurement tallied quite well with those obtained from direct indentation measurement. Copyright EDP Sciences/Società Italiana di Fisica/Springer-Verlag 2005