Aluminum scandium nitride films for piezoelectric transduction into silicon at gigahertz frequencies

Recent advances in the growth of aluminum scandium nitride films on silicon suggest that this material platform could be applied for quantum electromechanical applications. Here, we model, fabricate, and characterize microwave frequency silicon phononic delay lines with transducers formed in an adja...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied physics letters 2023-08, Vol.123 (7)
Main Authors: Hackett, L., Miller, M., Beaucejour, R., Nordquist, C. M., Taylor, J. C., Santillan, S., Olsson, R. H., Eichenfield, M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aluminum
Applied physics
chemical elements
Coupling coefficients
Cryogenic temperature
cryogenics
Delay lines
Efficiency
electromechanical coupling coefficient
inorganic compounds
Interdigital transducers
lamb waves
MATERIALS SCIENCE
Membranes
Microwave frequencies
microwave sources
Nitrides
phonons
Piezoelectricity
Room temperature
Scandium
Silicon
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Summary:Recent advances in the growth of aluminum scandium nitride films on silicon suggest that this material platform could be applied for quantum electromechanical applications. Here, we model, fabricate, and characterize microwave frequency silicon phononic delay lines with transducers formed in an adjacent aluminum scandium nitride layer to evaluate aluminum scandium nitride films, at 32% scandium, on silicon interdigital transducers for piezoelectric transduction into suspended silicon membranes. We achieve an electromechanical coupling coefficient of 2.7% for the extensional symmetric-like Lamb mode supported in the suspended material stack and show how this coupling coefficient could be increased to at least 8.5%, which would further boost transduction efficiency and reduce the device footprint. The one-sided transduction efficiency, which quantifies the efficiency at which the source of microwave photons is converted to microwave phonons in the silicon membrane, is 10% at 5 GHz at room temperature and, as we discuss, there is a path to increase this toward near-unity efficiency based on a combination of modified device design and operation at cryogenic temperatures.
ISSN:0003-6951
1077-3118
DOI:10.1063/5.0151434