Oxidation of Sintered Aluminum Nitride at Near-Ambient Temperatures |
| |
| Authors: | I Dutta S Mitra L Rabenberg |
| |
| Affiliation: | Department of Mechanical Engineering, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California 93940;Center for Materials Science and Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712 |
| |
| Abstract: | Oxidation of sintered aluminum nitride at low temperatures (20°–200°C) was studied using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Particles of α-Al2O3, about 20–30 Å in size, were found to form within minutes on freshly cleaned surfaces of AlN at room temperature. The oxide was found to grow nearly epitaxially on AlN when the {0001}AlN planes were exposed to the surface. Limited nonepitaxial oxidation was also observed when the basal planes were inclined to the TEM foil surface. After 10 h in air at 75°C, the particles coarsened to about 50 Å, while after 150 h at 200°C, an oxide film, about 500 Å thick, was observed on some grains. |
| |
| Keywords: | |
|
|
