Formation of iron or chromium doped epitaxial sapphire thin films on sapphire substrates

Abstract

This work summarizes results of a simple procedure to incorporate dopants into the near surface region of single-crystal sapphire. We demonstrate the formation of iron-doped and chromium-doped sapphire thin films by solid-phase epitaxial growth. Amorphous alumina films of about 200–350 nm thickness were deposited onto single-crystal sapphire substrates. Fe or Cr ions were introduced into the films during deposition. A post-deposition thermal process was performed in oxidizing ambients at 800–1400 °C to induce epitaxial growth and to incorporate dopants. The epitaxial relationship of the grown film with the substrate was confirmed by both ion channeling and cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy. The growth kinetics were determined by time-resolved reflectivity measurements for different dopant concentrations. Ion channeling angular scans revealed that the Fe or Cr ions are incorporated onto octahedral sites (Al3+ sites) in the corundum structure as expected in equilibrium. External optical transmittance measurements exhibited absorption in the near ultraviolet range associated with the Fe3+ state. The substitution of Cr for Al3+ was also confirmed by the observation of R1 and R2 luminescence lines characteristic of ruby. The doping procedure has potential applications in the fabrication of thin film planar optical waveguides and thin film stress sensors.