High Quality Epitaxial Piezoelectric and Ferroelectric Wurtzite Al_{1- x}Sc_xN Thin Films

Piezoelectric and ferroelectric wurtzite are promising to reshape modern microelectronics because they can be easily integrated with mainstream semiconductor technology. Sc doped AlN (Al_{1- x}Sc_xN) has attracted much attention for its enhanced piezoelectric and emerging ferroelectric properties, yet the commonly used sputtering results in polycrystalline Al_{1- x}Sc_xN films with high leakage current. Here, the pulsed laser deposition of single crystalline epitaxial Al_{1- x}Sc_xN thin films on sapphire and 4H-SiC substrates is reported. Pure wurtzite phase is maintained up to x = 0.3 with ≤0.1 at% oxygen contamination. Polarization is estimated to be 140 µC cm^-2 via atomic scale microscopy imaging and found to be switchable via a scanning probe. The piezoelectric coefficient is found to be five times of the undoped one when x = 0.3, making it desirable for high-frequency radiofrequency (RF) filters and 3D nonvolatile memories.