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Influence of flow ratio of N2 to (N2+Ar) mixture on the structure and properties of zirconium nitride films prepared by radio frequency magnetron sputtering

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 January 2011

Yingrui Sui ,
Jiukai Liu ,
Bo Liu ,
Lihong Wang  and
B. Yao
Yingrui Sui
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, Jilin University, Changchun 130023, China; and Department of Physics, Jilin Normal University, Siping 136000, China
Jiukai Liu
Affiliation:
Jilin Agriculture Engineering Polytechnic College, Siping 136000, China
B. Yao*
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, Jilin University, Changchun 130023, China
*
a) Address all correspondence to this author. e-mail: binyao@jlu.edu.cn
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Abstract

Zr–N films were grown on glass and Si (100) substrate by radio-frequency magnetron sputtering using a mixture of high pure nitrogen and argon as sputtering gases. The structure and properties of Zr–N compounds in the films change with N2/(N2+Ar) flow ratio (RN2). At low RN2, a ZrN alloy with the rocksalt structure (denoted as γ-ZrNx) is formed. The N concentration x and lattice constant increases with increasing RN2, and x reaches 1 when the RN2 goes up to 20%. As the RN2 exceeds 20%, the film is composed of γ-ZrN and Zr3N4 phase with Th3P4 structure (denoted as c-Zr3N4). The relative content decreases for the γ-ZrN but increases for the c-Zr3N4 with increasing RN2, and a single phase of c-Zr3N4 was deposited on glass at RN2 of 100%. The c-Zr3N4 behaves with p-type conductivity with a band gap of 2.8 eV. The lattice constant of the c-Zr3N4 was measured to be ∼0.674 nm. The mechanism of the phase transition from γ-ZrN to c-Zr3N4 with increasing RN2 was suggested.

Keywords

NitridePhase transformationX-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS)
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Materials Research , Volume 24 , Issue 10 , October 2009 , pp. 3206 - 3212
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2009

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