Development of epitaxial AlxSc1-xN for artificially structured metal/semiconductor superlattice metamaterials

Epitaxial nitride rocksalt metal/semiconductor superlattices are emerging as a novel class of artificially structured materials that have generated significant interest in recent years for their potential application in plasmonic and thermoelectric devices. Though most nitride metals are rocksalt, nitride semiconductors in general have hexagonal crystal structure. We report rocksalt aluminum scandium nitride (Al,Sc)N alloys as the semiconducting component in epitaxial rocksalt metal/semiconductor superlattices. The AlxSc1-xN alloys when deposited directly on MgO substrates are stabilized in a homogeneous rocksalt (single) phase when x < 0.51. Employing 20nm TiN as a seed layer on MgO substrates, the homogeneity range for stabilizing the rocksalt phase has been extended to x < 0.82 for a 120 nm film. The rocksalt AlxSc1-xN alloys show moderate direct bandgap bowing with a bowing parameter, B = 1.41 +/- 0.19 eV. The direct bandgap of metastable rocksalt-AlN is extrapolated to be 4.70 +/- 0.20 eV. The tunable lattice parameter, bandgap, dielectric permittivity, and electronic properties of rocksalt AlxSc1-xN alloys enable high quality epitaxial rocksalt metal/AlxSc1-xN superlattices with a wide range of accessible metamaterials properties. (C) 2014 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim