Atomic structure and phase transitions in disordered Ti1-xGaxN thin films grown by pulsed laser deposition Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • We report here the growth by pulsed laser deposition and characterization of metastable disordered Ti1xGaxN alloy thin films on Al2O3(0001) substrates. X-ray diffraction and x-ray-absorption fine-structure analyses showed that the films contained a single rocksaltlike atomic structure for 0 x>0.45, a single wurtzite-like structure for 0.75x1, and a mixture of both structures for 0.45x>0.75. Over most of the composition range, the alloy films were predominantly amorphous with some fraction of nanocrystalline material present. Electrical conductivity measurements showed that the structural transition near x0.5 is accompanied by a metalinsulator transition. This study provides an increased understanding of the TiNGaN pseudobinary phase field, which has potential technological implications for metallic contacts to GaN devices.

published proceedings

  • JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS

author list (cited authors)

  • Ren, J. Z., Rose, G. A., Williams, R. S., Booth, C. H., & Shuh, D. K.

citation count

  • 3

complete list of authors

  • Ren, JZ||Rose, GA||Williams, RS||Booth, CH||Shuh, DK

publication date

  • June 1998