Unprecedented enhancement of piezoelectricity of wurtzite nitride semiconductors via thermal annealing

Shubham Mondal, Md Mehedi Hasan Tanim, Garrett Baucom, Shaurya S. Dabas, Jinghan Gao, Jiangnan Liu, Zhengwei Ye, Venkateswarlu Gaddam, Aiden Ross, Long-Qing Chen, Honggyu Kim, Roozbeh Tabrizian and Zetian Mi ()
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Shubham Mondal: University of Michigan
Md Mehedi Hasan Tanim: University of Michigan
Garrett Baucom: University of Florida
Shaurya S. Dabas: University of Florida
Jinghan Gao: University of Florida
Jiangnan Liu: University of Michigan
Zhengwei Ye: University of Michigan
Venkateswarlu Gaddam: University of Florida
Aiden Ross: The Pennsylvania State University
Long-Qing Chen: The Pennsylvania State University
Honggyu Kim: University of Florida
Roozbeh Tabrizian: University of Florida
Zetian Mi: University of Michigan

Nature Communications, 2025, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract Incorporating rare-earth elements into wurtzite nitride semiconductors, such as scandium-alloyed aluminum nitride (ScAlN), significantly enhances the piezoelectric response, which is vital for a broad range of acoustic, electronic, photonic, and quantum applications. To date, however, the measured piezoelectric response of nitride semiconductors is far below what theory has predicted. Herein, we demonstrate a simple, scalable, post-growth thermal annealing process that can dramatically boost the piezoelectric response of ScAlN. We achieve a 3.5-fold increase in the piezoelectric modulus, d33 for ScAlN, from 12.3 pC/N in the as-grown state to 45.5 pC/N, which is eight times larger than that of AlN commercially used in 5 G cellphones. The observed enhancement is unambiguously confirmed by three separate measurement techniques. Detailed material characterization techniques reveal that optimized annealing conditions significantly improve the macroscopic structural quality, achieving a more homogeneous and ordered domain orientation, and reduces the lattice parameter ratio (c/a) in the wurtzite crystal structure. The dramatic enhancement of d33 in ScAlN thin films promises extreme frequency scaling opportunities for bulk acoustic wave resonators for beyond-5 G applications.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-59179-2

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