Development of Aluminum Nitride/Platinum Stack Structures for an Enhanced Piezoelectric Response

ABSTRACTAluminum nitride (AlN) films are being investigated for piezoelectric and high temperature applications, but the piezoelectric response is still much lower than that of more common piezoelectric materials such as lead zirconate titanate or zinc oxide. A method of maximizing the piezoelectric response of aluminum nitride has been explored by depositing stack structures composed of aluminum nitride and platinum. These stack structures were created by depositing a thin, ∼50nm, metal layer in between thicker, ∼150-350nm, layers of the piezoelectric film. Platinum was chosen as the metal interlayer due to the tendency of AlN to become highly c-oriented when deposited on Pt. An electric field was applied across the structure and displacements were measured using a Laser Doppler Vibrometer. A maximum piezoelectric coefficient d33 was found to be over two times larger than the theoretical value for AlN (3.9pm/V). However, some of the stack structures were found to be conductive when measuring the displacement. I-V measurements as well as Fowler-Nordheim theory and plots were applied to investigate tunneling due to high electric fields in the structures.