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REVIEW article

Front. Mater.
Sec. Semiconducting Materials and Devices
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmats.2025.1526968
This article is part of the Research Topic Advancing Transition Metal Nitride Semiconductors: Overcoming Integration Challenges and Exploring Applications View all articles

A Comprehensive Review of Yttrium Aluminum Nitride (YAlN): Crystal Structure, Growth techniques, Properties, and Applications

Provisionally accepted
Niloofar Afshar Niloofar Afshar *Mohamed Yassine Mohamed Yassine Oliver Ambacher Oliver Ambacher
  • Department of Sustainable Systems Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    YAlN has emerged as a wide band gap semiconductor with high potential to compete with ScAlN in industrial applications. Theoretical predictions about YAlN's material properties have been the main motivation for conducting experimental investigations and verify simulated results. However, several challenges have been faced in experimental studies on YAlN that contradict theoretical data, especially when trying to reach higher alloy concentrations. This work presents a systematic review analyzing different material properties including structural characterization, elastic properties, and thermal features. It combines all available experimental data on the growth and reported material parameters, such as band gap, lattice parameters, and electrical properties with the aim of introducing a new motivation to further study YAlN's potential in various fields of device applications. The review provides a comprehensive overview on the current state of knowledge on YAlN, highlighting the discrepancies between theoretical predictions and experimental results. By providing information from multiple studies, this work offers valuable insights into the challenges and opportunities associated with YAlN development, paving the way for future research directions and potential industrial applications of this promising wide band gap semiconductor.

    Keywords: YAlN, ScAlN, crystal structure, elastic properties, Thermal properties, Semiconductors, Metal nitrides, Acoustic devices

    Received: 12 Nov 2024; Accepted: 16 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Afshar, Yassine and Ambacher. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Niloofar Afshar, Department of Sustainable Systems Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.