184 ISSN 1063-7826, Semiconductors, 2018, Vol. 52, No. 2, pp. 184–188. © Pleiades Publishing, Ltd., 2018. Original Russian Text © Ya.V. Lubyanskiy, A.D. Bondarev, I.P. Soshnikov, N.A. Bert, V.V. Zolotarev, D.A. Kirilenko, K.P. Kotlyar, N.A. Pikhtin, I.S. Tarasov, 2018, published in Fizika i Tekhnika Poluprovodnikov, 2018, Vol. 52, No. 2, pp. 196–200. Oxygen Nitrogen Mixture Effect on Aluminum Nitride Synthesis by Reactive Ion Plasma Deposition Ya. V. Lubyanskiy a , A. D. Bondarev a , I. P. Soshnikov a, b, c *, N. A. Bert a , V. V. Zolotarev a , D. A. Kirilenko a , K. P. Kotlyar b , N. A. Pikhtin a , and I. S. Tarasov a† a Ioffe Institute, St. Petersburg, 194021 Russia b St. Petersburg Academic University—Nanotechnology Research and Education Centre, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, 194021 Russia c Institute for Analytical Instrumentation, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, 190103 Russia *e-mail: ipsosh.beam@mail.ioffer.ru Submitted July 11, 2017; accepted for publication July 19, 2017 Abstract—In the work we investigate synthesis of aluminum nitride films using reactive ion plasma deposition in oxygen/nitrogen gas mixture for application as optical elements for power semiconductor lasers. The experimental refractive index of synthesized AlNO films is dependent on oxygen composition and is decreas- ing in diapason from 1.76 to 2.035 at elevation of the oxygen fraction.It is shown that the AlN films synthe- sized by pure nitrogen plasma are polycrystalline and textured. The oxygen presence in discharging gas results to growth of amorphous phase of the AlNO film. DOI: 10.1134/S1063782618020070 1. INTRODUCTION The development of modern microelectronics, nanoelectronics, and optoelectronics involves the miniaturization of elements and an increase in their density in integrated circuits as well as an increase in the general power of devices. Under such operating conditions, the silicon-oxide- and/or aluminum- oxide-based insulating materials traditionally used for the production of such devices become sources of deg- radation processes. Application of aluminum nitride (AlN) is perspective solution to the problem of fabri- cation of many device structures: the material is isova- lent to the basic materials of optoelectronics (III–V gallium nitrides, gallium arsenide). In addition, alu- minum nitride possesses a wide band gap (6.1–6.2 eV) [1], a large thermal conductivity coefficient (10 and 300 times larger than that of aluminum oxide (Al 2 O 3 ) and silicon nitride/oxide (Si 3 N 4 /SiO 2 ) [2], respec- tively), dielectric properties, strength characteristics [3], chemical stability to a number of corrosive media, and optimal values of the refractive index and absorp- tion coefficient in a wide spectral range [2, 4, 5]. The properties make promising the use of aluminum nitride in the optoelectronics industry, specifically, as a passivating and antireflection coating for a large vari- ety of semiconductor lasers [2, 4, 6]. The technological specifications of device struc- tures defines the selection of the method for AlN film growth, specifically, AlN thin films (up to 1 μm) can be synthesized by molecular-beam epitaxy (MBE) [7– 9], chemical-vapor deposition (CVD) [7, 10, 11], the nitriding of surface layers [12–15], and reactive ion- plasma or magnetron presputtering deposition [7, 16– 19]. The process of the MBE growth of AlN films is nontrivial and expensive. The CVD method and nitridization in gas environment are also rather com- plex and call for toxic and highly explosive gases. In addition, synthesis of AlN films by the CVD and/or nitridization in reactive environment is realazed at high temperatures (~500–900°C), which makes the methods unsuitable for many applications, in particu- lar for the formation of an antireflection coating of a semiconductor laser and/or for the deposition of an insulating coating, since the already formed structure can degrade or undergo negative changes at the above- indicated temperatures. At the time, the AlN films can been deposited using ion-plasma method at sample temperatures from 25 to 250°C and, thus, to solve the problem of the production of coatings (AlN films on various semiconductor structures). In the work we study the synthesis of aluminum- nitride films using reactive ion-plasma sputtering. In the study, special attention is given to the problems of the oxygen effect on synthesis of aluminum-nitride † Deceased. SURFACES, INTERFACES, AND THIN FILMS