Hydrogen Ion-Induced AlN Thin Layer Transfer: An Elastomechanical Study

Abstract

The change in the micro-structural properties of epitaxially grown AlN as a function of different H-fluences and thermal evolution was elucidated by nanoindentation and by atomic force microscopy. In this study, we investigated 2 μm-thick AlN layers grown epitaxially on sapphire. The elasto-mechanical properties were measured using a Nanoindenter with continuous stiffness measurement attachment. The AlN samples were implanted with hydrogen ions at 50 keV with various fluences ranging from 0.5 × 1017cm-2 to 3 × 1017 cm-2. The modulus and hardness were carefully determined for each sample. The samples were then annealed in air at temperatures ranging from 300oC to 600oC for 5 min to study the influence of pre-layer splitting treatments on the mechanical properties.