Thermal stability of Nb thin films on sapphire

Abstract

The Nb/α−Al2O3 system has been used as a model study for investigating the stability of different MBE grown epitaxial Nb films on α−Al2O3 substrates. The films were grown at 800 °C in ultrahigh vacuum. The growth process was monitored in situ by reflection high energy electron diffraction (RHEED). After deposition the structure of the film was investigated by x-ray diffraction (XRD) and conventional transmission electron microscopy (CTEM) which encompasses also selected area diffraction (SAD). Both techniques revealed the following orientation relationship between the Nb film and the α–Al2O3 substrate: (0001)α–Al2O3‖ (111)Nb; [2110]α–Al2O3‖ [110]Nb. The stability of the niobium films was investigated by annealing the Nb-film/α–Al2O3 system to temperatures up to 1500 °C for different periods of time. Surprisingly, the orientation relationship between the Nb film and the substrate changed to (0001)α–Al2O3‖ (110)Nb; [0110]α–Al2O3‖ [001]Nb. A model will be developed which shows that above a critical film thickness the growth orientation is metastable with respect to its crystallographic orientation. Furthermore, high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HREM) was performed to investigate the defect structure of the annealed Nb/α–Al2O3 interface.