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Title: Thermal conductivity of crystalline AlN and the influence of atomic-scale defects

Abstract

Aluminum nitride (AlN) plays a key role in modern power electronics and deep-ultraviolet photonics, where an understanding of its thermal properties is essential. In this work, we measure the thermal conductivity of crystalline AlN by the 3ω method, finding that it ranges from 674 ± 56 Wm–1K–1 at 100 K to 186 ± 7 Wm–1 K–1 at 400 K, with a value of 237 ± 6 Wm–1 K–1 at room temperature. We compare these data with analytical models and first-principles calculations, taking into account atomic-scale defects (O, Si, C impurities, and Al vacancies). We find that Al vacancies play the greatest role in reducing thermal conductivity because of the largest mass-difference scattering. Modeling also reveals that 10% of heat conduction is contributed by phonons with long mean free paths (MFPs), over ~7 μm at room temperature, and 50% by phonons with MFPs over ~0.3 μm. Consequently, the effective thermal conductivity of AlN is strongly reduced in submicrometer thin films or devices due to phonon-boundary scattering.

Authors:
 [1]; ORCiD logo [2];  [3]; ORCiD logo [4];  [5];  [6];  [7];  [1]; ORCiD logo [3];  [3]; ORCiD logo [1]
+ Show Author Affiliations
  1. Stanford Univ., CA (United States)
  2. Stanford Univ., CA (United States); Univ. of Twente (Netherlands)
  3. Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (United States)
  4. Stanford Univ., CA (United States); SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States). Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Science (SIMES)
  5. Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)
  6. LITEN, CEA-Grenoble, (France); Savitribai Phule Pune Univ., Maharashtra (India)
  7. LITEN, CEA-Grenoble, (France)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE; National Science Foundation (NSF); Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA); US Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR); DST-INSPIRE Grant, India
OSTI Identifier:
1604926
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC02-76SF00515; EEC-1449548; 1534279; 1534303; ECCS-1542152; FA9550615-1-0187 DEF; IFA17-MS122
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Journal of Applied Physics
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 126; Journal Issue: 18; Journal ID: ISSN 0021-8979
Publisher:
American Institute of Physics (AIP)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
42 ENGINEERING

Citation Formats

Xu, Runjie Lily, Muñoz Rojo, Miguel, Islam, S. M., Sood, Aditya, Vareskic, Bozo, Katre, Ankita, Mingo, Natalio, Goodson, Kenneth E., Xing, Huili Grace, Jena, Debdeep, and Pop, Eric. Thermal conductivity of crystalline AlN and the influence of atomic-scale defects. United States: N. p., 2019. Web. doi:10.1063/1.5097172.
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Xu, Runjie Lily, Muñoz Rojo, Miguel, Islam, S. M., Sood, Aditya, Vareskic, Bozo, Katre, Ankita, Mingo, Natalio, Goodson, Kenneth E., Xing, Huili Grace, Jena, Debdeep, & Pop, Eric. Thermal conductivity of crystalline AlN and the influence of atomic-scale defects. United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5097172
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Xu, Runjie Lily, Muñoz Rojo, Miguel, Islam, S. M., Sood, Aditya, Vareskic, Bozo, Katre, Ankita, Mingo, Natalio, Goodson, Kenneth E., Xing, Huili Grace, Jena, Debdeep, and Pop, Eric. Tue . "Thermal conductivity of crystalline AlN and the influence of atomic-scale defects". United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5097172. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1604926.
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@article{osti_1604926,
title = {Thermal conductivity of crystalline AlN and the influence of atomic-scale defects},
author = {Xu, Runjie Lily and Muñoz Rojo, Miguel and Islam, S. M. and Sood, Aditya and Vareskic, Bozo and Katre, Ankita and Mingo, Natalio and Goodson, Kenneth E. and Xing, Huili Grace and Jena, Debdeep and Pop, Eric},
abstractNote = {Aluminum nitride (AlN) plays a key role in modern power electronics and deep-ultraviolet photonics, where an understanding of its thermal properties is essential. In this work, we measure the thermal conductivity of crystalline AlN by the 3ω method, finding that it ranges from 674 ± 56 Wm–1K–1 at 100 K to 186 ± 7 Wm–1 K–1 at 400 K, with a value of 237 ± 6 Wm–1 K–1 at room temperature. We compare these data with analytical models and first-principles calculations, taking into account atomic-scale defects (O, Si, C impurities, and Al vacancies). We find that Al vacancies play the greatest role in reducing thermal conductivity because of the largest mass-difference scattering. Modeling also reveals that 10% of heat conduction is contributed by phonons with long mean free paths (MFPs), over ~7 μm at room temperature, and 50% by phonons with MFPs over ~0.3 μm. Consequently, the effective thermal conductivity of AlN is strongly reduced in submicrometer thin films or devices due to phonon-boundary scattering.},
doi = {10.1063/1.5097172},
journal = {Journal of Applied Physics},
number = 18,
volume = 126,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue Nov 12 00:00:00 EST 2019},
month = {Tue Nov 12 00:00:00 EST 2019}
}
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