Influence of scandium concentration on power generation figure of merit of scandium aluminum nitride thin films

The authors have investigated the influence of scandium concentration on the power generation figure of merit (FOM) of scandium aluminum nitride (ScxAl1-xN) films prepared by cosputtering. The power generation FOM strongly depends on the scandium concentration. The FOM of Sc0.41Al0.59N film was 67 GPa, indicating that the FOM is five times larger than that of AlN. The FOM of Sc0.41Al0.59N film is higher than those of lead zirconate titanate and Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O-3-PbTiO3 films, which is the highest reported for any piezoelectric thin films. The high FOM of Sc0.41Al0.59N film is due to the high d(31) and the low relative permittivity. (C) 2013 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4788728]