Sreels Analysis of Oxygen-Rich Inversion Domain Boundaries in Aluminum Nitride

Abstract

AbstractSpatially resolved electron energy loss spectroscopy analysis has been conducted on planar inversion domain boundaries in aluminum nitride. The defects were found to contain 1.5 monolayers of oxygen, in agreement with the most recent structural model of Westwood. From variations in near-edge structure, the local atomic environments of both oxygen and aluminum are compared with α-A1203, γ-A1203 and γ-AION standards. Based upon this study the stnrcture of the inversion domain boundary is found to resemble that of the cubic γ-AION spinel, and eliminates from consideration those structural models based upon ai-Al203. Furthermore, quantification of the shape resonances provided Al-O bond-length data from the inversion domain boundary interface. These distances closely agree with the Youngman Model that has recently been further refined by Westwood et al.