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

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

doi:10.1063/1.5097172

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

Journal Article · 12 November 2019 · Journal of Applied Physics

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5097172 · OSTI ID:1604926

Xu, Runjie Lily ^[1];

^[2]; Islam, S. M. ^[3];

^[4]; Vareskic, Bozo ^[5]; Katre, Ankita ^[6]; Mingo, Natalio ^[7]; Goodson, Kenneth E. ^[1];

^[3]; Jena, Debdeep ^[3];

^[1]

Stanford Univ., CA (United States)
Stanford Univ., CA (United States); Univ. of Twente (Netherlands)
Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (United States)
Stanford Univ., CA (United States); SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States). Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Science (SIMES)
Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)
LITEN, CEA-Grenoble, (France); Savitribai Phule Pune Univ., Maharashtra (India)
LITEN, CEA-Grenoble, (France)

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.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Cite

Export

Save

Research Organization:: SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE; National Science Foundation (NSF); Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA); US Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR); DST-INSPIRE Grant, India

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-76SF00515; EEC-1449548; 1534279; 1534303; ECCS-1542152; FA9550615-1-0187 DEF; IFA17-MS122

OSTI ID:: 1604926

Journal Information:: Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 126, Issue 18; ISSN 0021-8979

Publisher:: American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Citation Metrics:

Cited by: 71 works

Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (74)

Deep-UV emission at 219 nm from ultrathin MBE GaN/AlN quantum heterostructures Islam, S. M.; Protasenko, Vladimir; Lee, Kevin Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 111, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5000844	journal	August 2017
Thermal Conductivity of Amorphous Silicon Wada, Hiroshi; Kamijoh, Takeshi Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 35, Issue Part 2, No. 5B https://doi.org/10.1143/JJAP.35.L648	journal	May 1996
Ab initio thermal transport in compound semiconductors Lindsay, L.; Broido, D. A.; Reinecke, T. L. Physical Review B, Vol. 87, Issue 16 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.87.165201	journal	April 2013
Accurate dependence of gallium nitride thermal conductivity on dislocation density Mion, C.; Muth, J. F.; Preble, E. A. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 89, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2335972	journal	August 2006
Universal phonon mean free path spectra in crystalline semiconductors at high temperature. Freedman, Justin P.; Leach, Jacob H.; Preble, Edward A. Carnegie Mellon University https://doi.org/10.1184/r1/6490241.v1	text	January 2013
Calculated thermoelectric properties of In _x Ga _1−x N, In _x Al _1−x N, and Al _x Ga _1−x N Sztein, Alexander; Haberstroh, John; Bowers, John E. Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 113, Issue 18 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4804174	journal	May 2013
Thermal diffusivity and thermal conductivity of single-crystal MgO and Al2O3 and related compounds as a function of temperature Hofmeister, Anne M. Physics and Chemistry of Minerals, Vol. 41, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00269-014-0655-3	journal	January 2014
Ultrahigh thermal conductivity confirmed in boron arsenide Dames, Chris Science, Vol. 361, Issue 6402 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aau4793	journal	August 2018
Epitaxially grown AlN and its optical band gap Yim, W. M.; Stofko, E. J.; Zanzucchi, P. J. Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 44, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1661876	journal	January 1973
An AlN/Al _0.85 Ga _0.15 N high electron mobility transistor Baca, Albert G.; Armstrong, Andrew M.; Allerman, Andrew A. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 109, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4959179	journal	July 2016
The influence of point defects on the thermal conductivity of AlN crystals Rounds, Robert; Sarkar, Biplab; Alden, Dorian Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 123, Issue 18 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5028141	journal	May 2018
Heat transport in thin dielectric films Lee, S. -M.; Cahill, David G. Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 81, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.363923	journal	March 1997
Thermal conduction in AlxGa1−xN alloys and thin films Liu, Weili; Balandin, Alexander A. Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 97, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1868876	journal	April 2005
Thermal Conductivity of AlN and SiC Thin Films Choi, Sun Rock; Kim, Dongsik; Choa, Sung-Hoon International Journal of Thermophysics, Vol. 27, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10765-006-0062-1	journal	May 2006
From ultrasoft pseudopotentials to the projector augmented-wave method Kresse, G.; Joubert, D. Physical Review B, Vol. 59, Issue 3, p. 1758-1775 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.59.1758	journal	January 1999
Temperature-Dependent Thermal Boundary Conductance of Monolayer MoS ₂ by Raman Thermometry Yalon, Eilam; Aslan, Özgür Burak; Smithe, Kirby K. H. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, Vol. 9, Issue 49 https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.7b11641	journal	November 2017
Review—Investigation and Review of the Thermal, Mechanical, Electrical, Optical, and Structural Properties of Atomic Layer Deposited High- k Dielectrics: Beryllium Oxide, Aluminum Oxide, Hafnium Oxide, and Aluminum Nitride Gaskins, John T.; Hopkins, Patrick E.; Merrill, Devin R. ECS Journal of Solid State Science and Technology, Vol. 6, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1149/2.0091710jss	journal	January 2017
Thermal Conductivity and Seebeck Coefficient of InP Kudman, I.; Steigmeier, E. F. Physical Review, Vol. 133, Issue 6A https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRev.133.A1665	journal	March 1964
Analysis of heat flow in layered structures for time-domain thermoreflectance Cahill, David G. Review of Scientific Instruments, Vol. 75, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1819431	journal	December 2004
High-excitation and high-resolution photoluminescence spectra of bulk AlN Feneberg, Martin; Leute, Robert A. R.; Neuschl, Benjamin Physical Review B, Vol. 82, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.82.075208	journal	August 2010
almaBTE : A solver of the space–time dependent Boltzmann transport equation for phonons in structured materials Carrete, Jesús; Vermeersch, Bjorn; Katre, Ankita Computer Physics Communications, Vol. 220 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpc.2017.06.023	journal	November 2017
Reduced Thermal Conductivity in Nanoengineered Rough Ge and GaAs Nanowires Martin, Pierre N.; Aksamija, Zlatan; Pop, Eric Nano Letters, Vol. 10, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1021/nl902720v	journal	April 2010
Self-heating in high-power AlGaN-GaN HFETs Gaska, R.; Osinsky, A.; Yang, J. W. IEEE Electron Device Letters, Vol. 19, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1109/55.661174	journal	March 1998
Thermal conductivity of GaN films: Effects of impurities and dislocations Zou, J.; Kotchetkov, D.; Balandin, A. A. Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 92, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1497704	journal	September 2002
Universal phonon mean free path spectra in crystalline semiconductors at high temperature Freedman, Justin P.; Leach, Jacob H.; Preble, Edward A. Scientific Reports, Vol. 3, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/srep02963	journal	October 2013
Deep ultraviolet emission from ultra-thin GaN/AlN heterostructures Bayerl, Dylan; Islam, Sm; Jones, Christina M. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 109, Issue 24 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4971968	journal	December 2016
Phonon transport unveils the prevalent point defects in GaN Katre, Ankita; Carrete, Jesús; Wang, Tao Physical Review Materials, Vol. 2, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.2.050602	journal	May 2018
Universal phonon mean free path spectra in crystalline semiconductors at high temperature. Freedman, Justin P.; Leach, Jacob H.; Preble, Edward A. Carnegie Mellon University https://doi.org/10.1184/r1/6490241	text	January 2013
Nonmetallic crystals with high thermal conductivity Slack, G. A. Journal of Physics and Chemistry of Solids, Vol. 34, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-3697(73)90092-9	journal	January 1973
Pulsed photothermal reflectance measurement of the thermal conductivity of sputtered aluminum nitride thin films Zhao, Yimin; Zhu, Chunlin; Wang, Sigen Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 96, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1785850	journal	October 2004
Surface roughness and thermal conductivity of semiconductor nanowires: Going below the Casimir limit Carrete, J.; Gallego, L. J.; Varela, L. M. Physical Review B, Vol. 84, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.84.075403	journal	August 2011
Band structure and fundamental optical transitions in wurtzite AlN Li, J.; Nam, K. B.; Nakarmi, M. L. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 83, Issue 25 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1633965	journal	December 2003
High thermal conductivity in cubic boron arsenide crystals Li, Sheng; Zheng, Qiye; Lv, Yinchuan Science, Vol. 361, Issue 6402 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aat8982	journal	July 2018
Two-dimensional electron gases in strained quantum wells for AlN/GaN/AlN double heterostructure field-effect transistors on AlN Li, Guowang; Song, Bo; Ganguly, Satyaki Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 104, Issue 19 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4875916	journal	May 2014
Heat capacity and thermal conductivity of hexagonal pyrolytic boron nitride Sichel, E. K.; Miller, R. E.; Abrahams, M. S. Physical Review B, Vol. 13, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.13.4607	journal	May 1976
Anisotropic and inhomogeneous thermal conduction in suspended thin-film polycrystalline diamond Sood, Aditya; Cho, Jungwan; Hobart, Karl D. Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 119, Issue 17 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4948335	journal	May 2016
ShengBTE: A solver of the Boltzmann transport equation for phonons Li, Wu; Carrete, Jesús; A. Katcho, Nebil Computer Physics Communications, Vol. 185, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpc.2014.02.015	journal	June 2014
Heat Generation and Transport in Nanometer-Scale Transistors Pop, E.; Sinha, S.; Goodson, K. E. Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 94, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1109/JPROC.2006.879794	journal	August 2006
Thermal conductivity of GaN crystals grown by high pressure method Jeżowski, A.; Stachowiak, P.; Plackowski, T. physica status solidi (b), Vol. 240, Issue 2, p. 447-450 https://doi.org/10.1002/pssb.200303341	journal	November 2003
Effect of nitrogen and vacancy defects on the thermal conductivity of diamond: An ab initio Green's function approach Katcho, N. A.; Carrete, J.; Li, Wu Physical Review B, Vol. 90, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.90.094117	journal	September 2014
Thermal conductivity measurement from 30 to 750 K: the 3ω method Cahill, David G. Review of Scientific Instruments, Vol. 61, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1141498	journal	February 1990
Direct Visualization of Thermal Conductivity Suppression Due to Enhanced Phonon Scattering Near Individual Grain Boundaries Sood, Aditya; Cheaito, Ramez; Bai, Tingyu Nano Letters, Vol. 18, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.8b00534	journal	April 2018
Thermal Analysis of High-Power Flip-Chip-Bonded Photodiodes Shen, Yang; Gaskins, John; Xie, Xiaojun Journal of Lightwave Technology, Vol. 35, Issue 19 https://doi.org/10.1109/JLT.2017.2736884	journal	October 2017
Phonon Scattering in Semiconductors From Thermal Conductivity Studies Holland, M. G. Physical Review, Vol. 134, Issue 2A https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRev.134.A471	journal	April 1964
Thermal conductivity of doped polysilicon layers McConnell, A. D.; Uma, S.; Goodson, K. E. Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems, Vol. 10, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1109/84.946782	journal	January 2001
The role of the carbon-silicon complex in eliminating deep ultraviolet absorption in AlN Gaddy, Benjamin E.; Bryan, Zachary; Bryan, Isaac Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 104, Issue 20 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4878657	journal	May 2014
First principles study of thermal conductivity cross-over in nanostructured zinc-chalcogenides Katre, Ankita; Togo, Atsushi; Tanaka, Isao Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 117, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4906461	journal	January 2015
Optical and thermal characterization of AlN thin films deposited by pulsed laser deposition Jacquot, A.; Lenoir, B.; Dauscher, A. Applied Surface Science, Vol. 186, Issue 1-4 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0169-4332(01)00767-X	journal	January 2002
Thermal Conductivity of the Elements Ho, C. Y.; Powell, R. W.; Liley, P. E. Journal of Physical and Chemical Reference Data, Vol. 1, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3253100	journal	April 1972
Transitioning to Physics-of-Failure as a Reliability Driver in Power Electronics Wang, Huai; Liserre, Marco; Blaabjerg, Frede IEEE Journal of Emerging and Selected Topics in Power Electronics, Vol. 2, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1109/JESTPE.2013.2290282	journal	March 2014
Microstructure and thermal conductivity of epitaxial AlN thin films Kuo, P. K.; Auner, G. W.; Wu, Z. L. Thin Solid Films, Vol. 253, Issue 1-2 https://doi.org/10.1016/0040-6090(94)90324-7	journal	December 1994
Exceptionally Strong Phonon Scattering by B Substitution in Cubic SiC Katre, Ankita; Carrete, Jesús; Dongre, Bonny Physical Review Letters, Vol. 119, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.075902	journal	August 2017
Thermal fatigue in silicon power transistors Lang, G. A.; Fehder, B. J.; Williams, W. D. IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, Vol. 17, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1109/T-ED.1970.17074	journal	September 1970
Aluminum nitride thin film growth and applications for heat dissipation Bian, Yingbin; Liu, Moning; Ke, Genshui Surface and Coatings Technology, Vol. 267 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.surfcoat.2014.11.060	journal	April 2015
Measurement of temperature distribution in multifinger AlGaN/GaN heterostructure field-effect transistors using micro-Raman spectroscopy Kuball, M.; Rajasingam, S.; Sarua, A. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 82, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1534935	journal	January 2003
Measuring the Thermal Conductivity of thin Films: 3 Omega and Related Electrothermal Methods Dames, Chris Annual Review of Heat Transfer, Vol. 16, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1615/AnnualRevHeatTransfer.v16.20	journal	January 2013
Reducing Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction and field-free spin-orbit torque switching in synthetic antiferromagnets Chen, Ruyi; Cui, Qirui; Liao, Liyang Nature Communications, Vol. 12, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-23414-3	journal	May 2021
Lattice parameters of AlN bulk, homoepitaxial and heteroepitaxial material Nilsson, D.; Janzén, E.; Kakanakova-Georgieva, A. Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, Vol. 49, Issue 17 https://doi.org/10.1088/0022-3727/49/17/175108	journal	April 2016
Anisotropic thermal conductivity in single crystal β-gallium oxide Guo, Zhi; Verma, Amit; Wu, Xufei Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 106, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4916078	journal	March 2015
Thermal Conductivity of Pure and Impure Silicon, Silicon Carbide, and Diamond Slack, Glen A. Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 35, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1713251	journal	December 1964
1ω,2ω, and 3ω methods for measurements of thermal properties Dames, Chris; Chen, Gang Review of Scientific Instruments, Vol. 76, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2130718	journal	December 2005
Thermal conductivity of aluminium nitride thin films prepared by reactive magnetron sputtering Duquenne, C.; Besland, M-P; Tessier, P. Y. Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, Vol. 45, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1088/0022-3727/45/1/015301	journal	December 2011
Quasi-ballistic Electronic Thermal Conduction in Metal Inverse Opals Barako, Michael T.; Sood, Aditya; Zhang, Chi Nano Letters, Vol. 16, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.6b00468	journal	March 2016
Breakdown mechanism in 1 kA/cm ² and 960 V E-mode β -Ga ₂ O ₃ vertical transistors Hu, Zongyang; Nomoto, Kazuki; Li, Wenshen Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 113, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5038105	journal	September 2018
Room temperature microwave oscillations in GaN/AlN resonant tunneling diodes with peak current densities up to 220 kA/cm ² Encomendero, Jimy; Yan, Rusen; Verma, Amit Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 112, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5016414	journal	March 2018
Thermal Conductivity of GaAs and GaAs _{1− x} P _x Laser Semiconductors Carlson, R. O.; Slack, G. A.; Silverman, S. J. Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 36, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1714018	journal	February 1965
The intrinsic thermal conductivity of AIN Slack, Glen A.; Tanzilli, R. A.; Pohl, R. O. Journal of Physics and Chemistry of Solids, Vol. 48, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-3697(87)90153-3	journal	January 1987
First-principles calculations of the ferroelastic transition between rutile-type and CaCl 2 -type SiO 2 at high pressures Togo, Atsushi; Oba, Fumiyasu; Tanaka, Isao Physical Review B, Vol. 78, Issue 13 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.78.134106	journal	October 2008
AlN metal–semiconductor field-effect transistors using Si-ion implantation Okumura, Hironori; Suihkonen, Sami; Lemettinen, Jori Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 57, Issue 4S https://doi.org/10.7567/JJAP.57.04FR11	journal	March 2018
Surface roughness and thermal conductivity of semiconductor nanowires: going below the Casimir limit Carrete, Jesús; Gallego, Luis Javier; Varela, Luis Miguel arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1103.3601	text	January 2011
Exceptionally strong phonon scattering by B substitution in cubic SiC Katre, Ankita; Carrete, Jesús; Dongre, Bonny arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1703.04996	text	January 2017
Temperature Dependent Thermal Boundary Conductance of Monolayer MoS$_2$ by Raman Thermometry Yalon, Eilam; Aslan, Özgür Burak; Smithe, Kirby K. H. arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1710.07650	text	January 2017
Phonon transport unveils the prevalent point defects in GaN Katre, Ankita; Carrete, Jesús; Wang, Tao arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1712.08124	text	January 2017
Direct Visualization of Thermal Conductivity Suppression Due to Enhanced Phonon Scattering Near Individual Grain Boundaries Sood, Aditya; Cheaito, Ramez; Bai, Tingyu arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1804.04163	text	January 2018

Similar Records

Temperature-Dependent Thermal Boundary Conductance of Monolayer MoS₂ by Raman Thermometry

Journal Article · 2017 · ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces · OSTI ID:1417661

Yalon, Eilam; Aslan, Ozgur Burak; Smithe, Kirby K. H.; +9 more

Quasi-Ballistic Thermal Transport Across MoS₂ Thin Films

Journal Article · 2019 · Nano Letters · OSTI ID:1529115

Sood, Aditya; Xiong, Feng; Chen, Shunda; +7 more

Significant Phonon Drag Enables High Power Factor in the AlGaN/GaN Two-Dimensional Electron Gas

Journal Article · 2019 · Nano Letters · OSTI ID:1547228

Yalamarthy, Ananth Saran; Muñoz Rojo, Miguel; Bruefach, Alexandra; +6 more

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING

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

Citation Formats

References (74)

Similar Records

Related Subjects