Deposition of zirconium nitride thin films produced by reactive DC magnetron sputtering

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Author list: Klumdoung, P.;Chaiyakun, S.;Limsuwan, P.

Publication year: 2010

Journal: Asian Journal of Energy and Environment (1513-4121)

Volume number: 11

Issue number: 1

Start page: 60

End page: 68

ISSN: 1513-4121

Abstract

Zirconium nitride thin films were deposited on unheated silicon wafer (100) and glass slide byreactive dc magnetron sputtering. The flow rate of Ar and N2 during sputtering wasmaintained at 6 and 3 sccm, respectively. The sputtering current (I) was kept constant at 600mA. The zirconium nitride films were deposited at different times of 15, 30 and 60 min,respectively. The surface morphology and thickness of the films was investigated by atomicforce microscopy (AFM). The structure was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) andtransmission electron microscopy (TEM). The colour of films deposited on glass slide wasmeasured using a spectrophotometer with a reference to CIE L*a*b* colour index. Theoptical transmission was determined by a UV-VIS-NIR spectrophotometer. The XRD andTEM results show that the structure of film is an orthorhombic phase of Zr3N4. The opticaltransmittance and energy band gap of Zr3N4 film in the wavelength range of 300-2100 nmwas found to be 69.3% and 2.1- 2.3 eV, respectively.

Keywords

dc magnetron sputtering, zirconium nitride, Thailand