Epitaxial Growth of Magnetron‐Sputtered ZrB₂ Films on Si(100) Substrates

Abstract

Epitaxial growth of ZrB2 films on Si(100) substrates at 900 °C is demonstrated using direct‐current magnetron sputter deposition from sintered ZrB2 targets. This case of epitaxial growth is structurally more challenging than on Si(111), 4 H‐SiC(001), and Al2O3(001). From pole figure measurements, two epitaxial relationships are determined: A) in‐plane: and , out‐of‐plane: , and B) in‐plane: and the same multiply rotated 90° around the 102 axis, out of plane: . From full width at half maximum (FWHM) values from rocking curve measurements (ω‐scans) of the 100 and 102 peaks, a measure of epitaxial quality for these two preferred orientations is obtained. Both ω‐scans and θ/2θ diffractograms show higher quality for the A‐type with a FWHM value of 2.00° compared with 4.97° for the B‐type. The film composition is found to be ZrB2.3 from time‐of‐flight elastic recoil detection analysis. The B‐type crystallographic relationship and has not been previously reported.